Ukraine's deaflympic team becomes world football champion for first time

The Ukrainian team has become the champion of 2023 among the players with impaired hearing.

Source: Suspline Sport

Details: The tournament was held from 23 September to 7 October in the Malaysian city of Kuala-Lumpur.

Ukraine participated in the championship for the fourth time. At the previous competition in 2016, the team finished ninth.

In total, 19 teams participated in the tournament, and Türkiye was competing to preserve its champion title. The teams had to play three matches in a group, and then, the strongest team continued to compete in the play-off round.

Ukrainians began with a crushing victory over Thailand (6:0).

At the group stage, the Ukrainian team also played a draw with Senegal (2:2) and then defeated Argentina (5:0).

With seven points in their pocket, Ukraine won the first place and made it to the play-offs where they started with the victory over Nigeria (2:0) and then proceeded to beat Iran in the quarterfinals (3:0).

In the return leg of the semifinal fixture, Ukraine fought for the place in the final with Senegal. This time the semifinal ended with a series of penalties, which Ukraine won with a minimal advantage of one goal.

Ukraine entered the finals for the first time in history and won the decisive match against Japan with the score of 2:1.

Ihor Reutov became the best goal scorer of the tournament after scoring eight goals. Among others, player-coach Oleksandr Vereshchaka scored one goal.  

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