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Zinchenko and Mykolenko in tears as Everton and Man City show support for Ukraine

talksport.com, 26 February 2022, 18:21
Manchester City's Oleksandr Zinchenko and Everton's Vitaliy Mykolenko were reduced to tears as players, staff, and fans showed support for their country of Ukraine at Goodison Park.

With Ukraine under attack from Russia, gestures of support for the nation have appeared across the football and wider sporting world.

The likes of Crystal Palace and Manchester United have sent out messages, with Ukraine's capital Kyiv under siege.

Man City's clash with Everton features a pair of Ukraine internationals who interrupted their pre-match warm ups to embrace.

The Goodison crowd roared into applause at the gesture, and then showed even more support with Ukrainian flags, shirts and messages for the players, as well as playing the song, 'He ain't heavy, he's my brother'.

The pair of Ukrainian left-backs were on the substitutes benches for their respective sides, and very visibly moved by the pre-match scenes.

Everton's players entered the field draped in Ukrainian flags, while City's squad wore shirts with the yellow and blue flag and the words 'no war'.

Opposing managers Frank Lampard and Pep Guardiola have since commented on the current mental state of their players, with the latter empathising with Zinchenko.

When asked how the City defender was feeling, Guardiola said: "Worried.

"Yesterday I said in the press conference well you should be if you are in your country where you grew up, it's your mother tongue, you language, your friends, your families under attack for the decision of one person or two people, like they're at home and send the people to kill themselves, so we will be worried, like Alex is."

Lampard also commented on Mykolenko, who had signs of support from fans throughout the stands.

"It's important to show the support," Lampard said. "I think we have a lot of support at the club, it's a people's club but I think generally some of the support you've seen in the sporting world it's been fantastic.

"I've had numerous conversations with him and the decision was always his to be involved or not he's never given me the inkling he doesn't want to be involved because I think it's a small release for him at the minute to train with us and feel like he's part of our family.

"The onus is on us to support him to do what we can, there's not much help we can give other than to know that we're there for him, so tough time for him and I'm sure both sets of fans will show support for both players."

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