After Ukrainian Independence and the country's breakaway from the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on 29 April 1992. The team's biggest success on the world stage was reaching the quarter-finals in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which also marked the team's debut in the finals of a major championship.[3]
As the host nation, Ukraine automatically qualified for UEFA Euro 2012.[3] Four years later, Ukraine qualified for Euro 2016 via the play-off route, the first time qualifying for a UEFA European Championship via the qualifying process, as they finished in third place in their qualifying group. This marked the first time in Ukraine's six play-off appearances that it managed to win such a tie, previously having been unsuccessful in the play-off ties for the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2000, 2002 World Cup, 2010 World Cup and 2014 World Cup.
Ukraine is seen as a specific case of being a successful youth football power in Europe and the world, yet fails to deliver the same taste at senior stage. The U-20 team of Ukraine has been the current reigning world champions at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, while the U-21 team had won silver medal in the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship; however in spite of this rich record in youth stage, the senior side didn't have the same level of achievement to look back at. While the Ukrainian senior side managed to reach the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup, the team failed to enter the knockout stages in Euro 2012 and Euro 2016, and have never returned to the World Cup since.
Ukraine's best performance in the UEFA European Championship, was in the 2020 edition, having reached the quarter finals for the first time before their run was stopped by England with a 4–0 defeat on 3 July 2021 in the quarterfinals.
