All you need to know about England's opponents in the Euros quarter finals

INDEPENDENT WOMAN

Model, dancer and actress Christina Yaremchuk, 27, is the wife of striker Roman.

They have been together since he was 16 and she 18 — Christina says she approached him saying: ‘Boy, you have beautiful eyes’. Married since 2017, they have a toddler son. Roman previously played for Dynamo Kiev and now plays for Gent in Belgium. She has worked as a fitness coach and has spoken out against WAGs who live off their boyfriends.

THE TV STAR

Stunning blonde Vlada, 25, is married to Manchester City left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, 24. She is a presenter for a Ukrainian TV football station and has been called the world’s most beautiful WAG. 

The two married in August last year after Oleksandr proposed inside the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, and she is expecting their first child. They have been dubbed Ukraine’s ‘Posh and Becks’.

GREAT COOK 

A mother of three young sons, Margarita Stepanenko has been married for eight years to midfielder Taras, who plays for Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk. A local celebrity, she has her own clothing brand and shares her favourite recipes online.

FASHION LOVER

Married to midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi since 2016, Roksana, 27, is settled in Bergamo, Italy, while he plays for its club Atalanta. Their daughter Olivia was born in 2019. She says that she is planning to open a shop in the city.

Roksana, who was raised in Sevastopol — the largest city and a major port in the Crimea, said: ‘Sitting at home is not my style. Since Italy is a country of textiles, it is a sin not to get in touch with fashion and clothing.’

THE MODEL

Mother of two Tania is the model wife of defender Yevhenii Makarenko, 30, who plays for the Belgian team Kortrijk on loan from Anderlecht. Their children are Emi, born in 2019, and Alexander, born in 2017. The family lives in Brussels.

THE CHARITY WORKER

Inna Yarmolenko married West Ham forward Andriy in 2011 and they have three young sons. She has worked as an interpreter at a charitable foundation and says that in the early years, ‘my earnings helped us a lot’. Andriy now earns £115,000 a week.

GERMAN REF WITH A TOUGH REPUTATION

Let's hope Felix Brych is not a man to bear a grudge — the German will referee tonight’s clash just four days after England knocked his nation out the Euros.

Brych, 45, hails from Bavaria and is one of the best-known referees in world football.

Some of his decisions have been controversial: in the 2018 World Cup he didn’t give Serbia a penalty against Switzerland even though it appeared that striker Aleksandar Mitrovic was being held down by two Swiss players.

UKRAINE KIT’S PATRIOTIC MESSAGE

The yellow and blue of the Ukraine kit may be a sunny ode to the national flag, which represents blue skies above a field of wheat. But this particular kit, unveiled shortly before the tournament began, has fuelled ongoing and bitter rivalries with Moscow.

This is because it includes an outline map with the peninsula of Crimea — annexed by Russia in 2014 but which is still internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

Look closer and you will see the phrase ‘Glory to Ukraine’ on the back of the neck. The shirts did also carry the phrase ‘Glory to the Heroes’ before Russia complained and they were removed.

The slogans, rooted in Ukraine’s anti-Soviet insurgency, are used as official military greetings in Ukraine, and were a rallying cry by protesters who forced out pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Cue complaints to UEFA from angry Russia. The Kremlin’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, wrote: ‘Sport is not a battlefield, rather it is a field for competition. Become sporting heroes and you will have glory. Do it that way and not with nationalist slogans.’

MANAGER WITH THE GOLDEN BOOT

Ukrainian manager Andriy Shevchenko, 44, has much in common with England’s Gareth Southgate — intelligent, always immaculately turned out (in Giorgio Armani suits made by his Italian fashion designer pal) and a lover of the UK.

His brief sojourn as a Chelsea player may not have been an overwhelming success, but Shevchenko won the 2004 Ballon d’Or while at Italian club AC Milan. He still has a house in Surrey, speaks fluent English and Italian and often plays golf with John Terry and Jamie Redknapp.

Curiously, while his English may be good, he is not so confident with Ukrainian — his native tongue is Russian (like nearly 30 per cent of his countrymen).

Married to American former model Kristen Pazik, he has glamour and sporting history at his side — her father was former New York Yankees pitcher Mike Pazik. A mother-of-four, she often shares photographs of her sons — the second of whom, Kristian, is on Chelsea’s books at just 14, and has been touted as a future England star.

DANGER MEN FOR ENGLAND HEROES

The team danger man is well-known to England fans, West Ham United’s Andriy Yarmolenko. And then, of course, there’s the familiar face of team captain (and talisman) Oleksandr Zinchenko, a Manchester City player and team-mate of England’s man of the moment, Raheem Sterling, along with his fellow England men Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden.

Another star player is Ruslan Malinovskyi. He has an extra incentive to get on the pitch; his wife reportedly bakes him a cake for every goal scored.

MAKE MINE A SHOT OF BURNING WATER