Oleksandr Zinchenko eyed a head-to-head against Raheem Sterling and admitted he's the “strongest opponent we could play.”
The Manchester City team mates will do battle in Rome on Saturday – Sterling attacking Zinchenko's left wing-back position, just like their daily tussles in training at the Eithad.
Zinchenko has heaped flattery on to his City friends Sterling, John Stones and Kyle Walker ahead of the clash with Andriy Shevchenko's men, but isn't ruling out a shock.
He scored and made the winner against Sweden to set up England's first game away from Wembley at the Euro 2020, and insists ex Chelsea striker Shevchenko will have a tactical plan.
Zinchenko said: “Raheem? Who is the strongest opponent you have ever played against? I say that the footballers from Manchester City are. Those boys who I see every day at training.
“Raheem Sterling is one of the best wingers in the world, and right now he is in amazing form. He is great. He makes the difference for England.
“We need to pay attention. We need to somehow stop him because he is on a roll.”
Zinchenko says he knows England inside out after watching all their games and playing in the Premier League.
He added: “The substitutes bench probably costs three Ukrainian teams!
“This should not be really be scary for us. This should motivate us. We need to give ourselves the highest aims and goals in this match.
“It is really difficult to score against England, they organise so well. They have a really good set of footballers.
“I have watched all the games England have played except Germany. I know quite a lot of these England players personally because I see them in the Premier League.
“I am sure the coaching team will get a strategy and we will have to realise that.
“I have a sense that everything is possible in this life and we will do what we can to win.”
Zinchenko celebrated his first half goal with a finger to his mouth and he explained: “After the first three games we received a lot of criticism which obviously we deserved with our game (just one win in the group stage).
“I wanted to show to those people with my celebration that they should be quiet because we are a team who deserves it and fights. We are creating history. My celebration showed they need to support us. “
Shevchenko has been taking a hands on approach to training. He's 44, fit and hasn't lost his old touch. He takes part in training drills and matches because he wants to get a feel for how his players are reacting on the pitch.
He said: “We need to believe and be strong. The English are a great team, they have a great manager. I watched the first half and they are extremely strong. We will try something that will give us a positive result.”
Ukraine will assess the physical damage of their 120 minute battle today, and fatigue could give England an advantage. Artem Besedin is certain to be out with a bad knee injury.
Shevchenko added: “We will try to recover our players physically and also psychologically because they gave their all.
“We have so many emotions. The doctors were taking care of Bedesin. We will know more about the state of our health. It was a hard game and there were a lot of crashes. The prize at the end was great and now one gave up, so there were so many crashes.”
