On Wednesday, June 18, the Ukraine U-21 national team played their third and, as it turned out, final match at Euro 2025, losing to their Dutch counterparts.
The match ended with a convincing victory for the Dutch team, with a score of 2:0.
The first goal for Ukraine came on the 31st minute when Arsenii Batagov failed to clear the ball, and van Bommel assisted Valent, who scored into the empty net of Ruslan Neshcheret.
Unfortunately, attempts by Ukrainian players to quickly restore parity ended in failure, and the team went into halftime trailing by one goal.
The second half saw no improvement for Unai Melgosa's squad; attempts at long shots missed the target, and on the 57th minute, Ukraine conceded a second goal. Van Bommel again provided an assist, delivering a precise pass to van Bergen, who evaded Mykhavko and lifted the ball over Neshcheret.
Substitutions were made, but they had no impact on the final outcome. Even a red card for the opponent nine minutes before the final whistle did not help. In the end, Ukraine finished third in their group, which does not allow for advancement to the quarter-finals, where the top two teams from each group qualify.
2025 UEFA European Championship (U-21)
Matchday 3, Group D, June 18
Netherlands U-21 – Ukraine U-21 2:0 (1:0)
Goals: 1:0 – 34 Valent, 2:0 – 57 van Bergen
Netherlands U-21: Ruifs – Matsen, Hato, van den Berg, Rensh – Taylor (Mayer, 90+2), Valent (Reger, 75), Flamingo – van Bommel (van Brederoode, 80), van Bergen (Ohio, 79), Menhof (Poku, 74)
Ukraine U-21: Neshcheret – Krupskiy (Kozik, 75), Mykhavko, Batagov, Vivcharenko – Ocheretko (Yatsyk, 75), Rubchynskyi (Tsarenko, 65), Yarmolyuk – Bragaru, Vanat (V'yunyk, 65), Voloshyn (Kvasnytsia, 80)
Yellow cards: 37 – Matsen, 48 – Vivcharenko, 51 – van den Berg, 59 – Ocheretko
Red card: 81 – Reger (straight red)
As is known, in the first round, Unai Melgosa's team suffered a narrow defeat to Denmark (2:3), but in the second match, they defeated Finland (2:0). The Netherlands drew with Finland (2:2) and lost to Denmark (1:2) in the previous two rounds, so for Ukraine to advance to the quarter-finals, they only needed not to lose.