Ukraine coach Blokhin drops 3 players

KIEV, Ukraine (AP)

Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin avoided surprises in picking the three players to drop for his final squad for the European Championship.

The co-hosts will be without goalkeeper Oleksandr Bandura, defender Vitaliy Mandziuk and midfielder Taras Stepanenko, Blokhin announced on Tuesday.

Neither of the three players played during a 4-0 thumping of Estonia in the team's first Euro 2012 warm-up game on Monday.

Ukraine, which will co-host the event with Poland from June 8 to July 1, will rely on a mix of youth and experience in its first European Championship.

Veteran forward Andriy Shevchenko and midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Ukraine's most-capped player, are joined in the squad by exciting 22-year-old wingers Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka.

Blokhin's biggest worries have been the goalkeepers, with his three top choices ruled out by injury or suspension. Shakhtar Donetsk's Andriy Pyatov will likely start, although he could be challenged by 19-year-old Maxym Koval.

Ukraine will play two more warm-up games - against Austria on Friday and Turkey on June 5 - before kicking of its tournament against Sweden on June 11 in a group that also includes England and France.

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Ukraine:

Goalkeepers: Oleksandr Goryainov (Metalist Kharkiv), Maxym Koval (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk).

Defenders: Bohdan Butko (Illychivets Mariupil), Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Taras Mikhalik (Dynamo Kiev), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Selin (Vorskla Poltava), Yevhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kiev), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk).

Midfielders: Olexandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kiev), Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kiev), Oleh Gusev (Dynamo Kiev), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Serhiy Nazarenko (Tavriya Simferopol), Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Bayern Munich), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kiev).

Forwards: Andriy Voronin (Dinamo Moscow), Marko Devic (Metalist Kharkiv), Artem Milevskiy (Dynamo Kiev), Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kiev).