Blokhin drops trio from Ukraine squad
Reuters - Tuesday 29 May 2012, 11:50
Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin omitted goalkeeper
Olexandr Bandura, defender Vitaly Mandzyuk and midfielder Taras
Stepanenko in finalising his squad for Euro 2012 on Tuesday.
The trio were dropped following the 4-0 friendly win over
Estonia on Monday.
Co-hosts Ukraine will now go into the tournament with a
shortage of experienced goalkeepers.
First-choice Olexandr Shovkovsky sustained a shoulder injury
to miss out on the tournament, Andrey Dykan suffered head and
facial injuries in a Russian Premier League match and Oleksandr
Rybka was suspended for using a banned diuretic.
Shakhtar Donetsk goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov, who has 24 caps,
is considered to be the first-choice stopper.
Ukraine take on Austria in another friendly on June 1 before
a final warm-up against Turkey on June 5. They open their Euro
2012 campaign against Sweden on June 11. England and France are
also in Group D.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Olexandr
Horyainov (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Maxym Koval (FC Dynamo Kiev).
Defenders: Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yaroslav
Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar
Donetsk), Evhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kiev), Taras Mykhalyk (Dynamo
Kiev), Evhen Selin (Vorskla), Bogdan Butko (Illichivets).
Midfielders: Olexandr Aliev (Dynamo Kiev), Denys Garmash
(Dynamo Kiev), Oleh Gusiev (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Yarmolenko
(Dynamo Kiev), Evhen Konoplyanka (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Ruslan
Rotan (Dnipro), Serhiy Nazarenko (Tavriya), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk
(Bayern Munich).
Forwards: Artem Milevskiy (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Shevchenko
(Dynamo Kiev), Marco Devic (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Andriy Voronin
(Dynamo Moscow), Evhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk).