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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dom Smith

Oleksandr Zinchenko admits Ukraine powerless to stop Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka

Oleksandr Zinchenko lauded the performance of his Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka after his Ukraine side became the winger’s latest victims in England’s win 2-0 at Wembley.

Victory in the Euro 2024 made it two wins from two for England, with Saka assisting Harry Kane’s opener and then curling in a sumptuous second before the break.

It was a tough day on the pitch for Ukraine in their Group C opener but Zinchenko accepted that facing the likes of Saka meant a positive result was always going to be a tough ask.

“[Saka] is an amazing player,” he said. “We knew that. He is on fire at the moment.

“There are no friends on the pitch. Unfortunately he beat me today.”

Asked whether Saka is the best player in the Premier League on current form, Zinchenko, 26, said: “Definitely he is one of them, that’s for sure.

“I hope we will be on this form until the end of the season because he’s such an important player for us. Everyone knows this.”

Zinchenko will now return to work alongside Saka with Arsenal for the final 10 games of the Premier League title race run-in.

Starting with the visit of Leeds on Saturday, the Gunners will treat each game with the utmost importance and he insisted: “We have 10 more finals.”

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