The Ukrainian national team will play a nominally home match against Italy on November 20 in Leverkusen, Germany, which will be decisive in the Euro 2024 qualifying group.
Before this qualifying match, ISPORT.ua decided to recall the football interaction between the two countries at the level of their representatives in national championships.
Enough is known about Ukrainian legionnaires in Italy, and there were more of them quantitatively than Italian performers in Ukraine. Just look at the winner of the Ballon d'Or and Milan striker Andrei Shevchenko, who, without exaggeration, became one of the symbols of the “zero” calcio.. You can recall the bright period in Atalanta of Ruslan Malinovsky, the performances of Sergei Atelkin, Evgeniy Shakhov, Viktor Kovalenko, or more recent examples in the person of Alexander Zavarov and Alexey Mikhailichenko.
Read also: Ukraine – Italy: forecast for the Euro 2024 qualifying match
In the opposite direction, which is logical, at one time only two football players went and stayed in Ukraine for a short period of time: the top scorer of Serie A in the 2004/05 season and Italian national team player Christiano Lucarelli and Inter Milan graduate Gaetano Monachello.
Christiano Lucarelli
In the summer of 2007, Cristiano Lucarelli became the first Italian football player in Ukraine and the star newcomer of Shakhtar Donetsk.
During his career, Lucarelli changed a number of Italian clubs, including the Spanish Valencia, until in 2003 he signed a contract with the team of the same name in his hometown of Livorno, where he would become an iconic player.
Source: Getty Images
Already in the first season, the striker, with his goalscoring achievements, helped Amaranto leave Serie B and rise in class, and in the scoring race with 29 goals scored, he finished second, losing only one goal to Luca Toni, who then represented Palermo. The following season, the forward managed to conquer Serie A right away – as part of the modest Livorno, he became the top scorer in the top division with 24 goals in 35 matches.. In the next two years, Lucarelli did not slow down much (19 and 20 goals in Serie A) and at that time was called up to the Italian national team, for which he scored three times in six matches. By the way, even in the Italian youth team the striker had excellent results – ten effective hits in 12 games.
Read also: Ukraine – Italy: where to watch the Euro 2024 qualifying match
However, in 2007, after a deterioration in relations with the management of Livorno, Lucarelli decided to leave the team, and Shakhtar did not spare almost eight million euros for the 31-year-old scorer. In the person of the Italian, the Donetsk club received a good forward with a name, and he, in turn, as it later turned out, received the only opportunity in his career to play in the Champions League.
Source: FC Shakhtar Donetsk
However, Lucarelli will not show his former performance at Shakhtar. He will score only four goals in 12 championship matches, although these will be goals in victorious matches: a double against Tavriya (2:0) and one goal each in meetings with Chernomorets (2:1) and FC Kharkiv ( 2:1).
Lucarelli will score his first European Cup goal for Shakhtar in the return match of the Champions League qualification against Salzburg (0:1, 3:1) and help the Pitmen reach the group round. In a quartet with Milan, Celtic and Benfica, the Italian striker will score three goals – half of all the Donetsk team's effective shots in that draw. But if in the match with the Celts (2:0) his goal helps win, then the other two will remain the only ones in the lost matches with the Rossoneri (1:4) and the Eagles (1:2).
Source: Getty Images
Shakhtar finished last in the Champions League group, was eliminated from European competition, and Lucarelli's stay in Ukraine was coming to an end. The Italian striker decided to return to his homeland to be more visible to national team coach Roberto Donadoni before Euro 2008, and in January was sold to Parma for 5.7 million euros. However, the striker will not go to the European Championship.
Subsequently, the aged striker was no longer able to conquer his former heights and in the summer of 2012 he ended his professional career. After already ten years, Lucarelli has been trying his hand at coaching in various Italian teams.
Source: Getty Images
Gaetano Monachello
The period of the career of another Italian football player in Ukraine, Gaetano Monachello, was not as eventful as Lucarelli’s, but just as short-term. And at the time of their arrival, these performers were in different weight categories.
Unlike his predecessor, who had already earned a name for himself, everything was just beginning for Monachello. In July 2012, the 18-year-old Sicilian signed a contract with Donetsk Metallurg, where he was brought by agent Dmitry Selyuk. It is noteworthy that initially the young striker could have ended up in Simferopol Tavria, but in the end the choice fell on Donetsk, where, as his representative believed, the player would have more prospects for growth.
Source: Getty Images
Prior to this, Monachello was brought up in the structure of Inter Milan, demonstrated good performance during his six-month loan spell with Parma – eight goals in 14 matches. He was called up to the Italian U-17 youth team, where he played and scored, and later to senior teams.
Nevertheless, his career in Ukraine went completely unnoticed. The Italian striker took part in only four matches for Metallurg, playing for a total of just over half an hour and earning one warning.
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Monachello's contract with the Donetsk club was for three years, but just six months later, in the winter of 2013, he moved to Cypriot Olympiacos from Nicosia.
The Italian then said: “The determining factor was the desire to have more playing practice in the first team, any footballer wants to play more. In addition, there is no point in denying that Cyprus has a milder climate than cold Ukraine. It looks like my Sicily. The period at Metallurg was very productive. I have improved in physical condition, experience, and speed. I would like to thank Konstantinos Makridis, who treated me very well at Metallurg. He taught me English, helped me adapt and was like a brother to me.”
Source: Getty Images
After Monachello, he managed to visit Monaco, play in Belgium, Greece, and in 2014 he returned to Italy, where he has already changed more than ten clubs. The 29-year-old striker currently represents Mantova from the Italian third division.
Let us remind you that the match of the tenth round of Euro 2024 qualification between Ukraine and Italy will take place on Monday, November 20, in Leverkusen, Germany at the Bay Arena stadium and will begin at 21:45 Kyiv time.
An online broadcast of the Ukraine – Italy match will be available on ISPORT.
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