Ukraine defender Vitaliy Mykolenko is determined to stop Kevin De Bruyne from scoring or assisting when they face Belgium at Euro 2024 on Wednesday.
Ukraine and Belgium find themselves in a winner-takes-all encounter as all four teams in Group B currently have three points after two games but they are separated by goal difference.
Ahead of the crunch tie in Stuttgart, Everton’s Mykolenko aware of De Bruyne’s threat in the Red Devils squad and he has calling on his teammates to stop him from creating chances.
De Bruyne scored the second goal in Belgium’s 2-0 win against Romania on Saturday after his impressive contribution of four goals and 10 assists in 18 Premier League games for Manchester City last season.
Mykolenko said: “If we’ll speak about Kevin De Bruyne he has the most assists in the Premier League and I think he is the best player in Belgium (side) and he is the captain and if we play as a team against him and against Belgium.
“I hope he will not assist and he will not score. It is important for us as a team and as defenders if he doesn’t assist and doesn’t score (then) I will be happy.”
Meanwhile, the Everton star is ready to face and ‘kick’ his club teammate Amadou Onana if he gets the nod to play for Belgium at the MPH Arena on Wednesday.
“We are not good friends but we are good team-mates in our (club) team. But, in the next game if I will play and he will play, I will fight and I will kick him every time! So we are not friends and not team-mates in the next game,” he added.
After an humiliating start to the European Championship with a 3-0 loss to Romania, Ukraine bounced back with a 2-1 win against Slovenia.
Goals from Valencia striker Roman Yaremchuk and Mykola Shaparenko in the second half completed the comeback win for Serhii Rebrov’s men.
