Ukraine vs North Macedonia
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Ukraine vs North Macedonia takes place on June 17 at the National Arena in Bucharest, in the second round of matches of Group C. Both teams were involved in high scoring defeats in their opening matches, and will be looking to try to get their first win of Euro2020. Read on for analysis, match predictions and betting tips.
Form
Ukraine can consider themselves considerably unlucky to not have come out of their opening game without a point. They fought a spirited comeback from 2-0 down to equalise with ten minutes to go only to have their hearts broken in the last five minutes by Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries. It was the first time Ukraine had been defeated in 2021, and the first time they have conceded more than one goal in six games. They will need to be stronger this time out.
There’s been a lot of attention on Goran Pandev before the opening game, who made his debut for North Macedonia (or FYROM as they were then) 20 years ago. At the age of 37, Pandev made his major finals debut in his 120th appearance for North Macedonia, and the Genoa forward capped the fairytale off with a first half equaliser against Austria. It wasn’t to be in that game as Austria finished strongly to win but the Lynxes can be proud with their efforts.
Injuries
Ferencvaros forward Oleksandr Zubkov limped off for Ukraine in their opening match and will probably be a doubt for this game. He was replaced in that fixture by Shaktar Donetsk’s Marlos who could retain his place in the team for this fixture.
Mallorca forward Aleksandar Trajkovski was lucky only to see yellow following what looked like an elbow on Austrian defender Aleksandar Dragovic in the first half. A red would have given North Macedonian coach Igor Angelovski a bit of a selection headache for this game. Angelovski was proud of what his team did in the first game and made it plain what the game plan is - to create chances for the talismanic Pandev.
Match prediction
Unsurprisingly, North Macedonia are huge favourites for this game, being ranked 38 places higher than their opponents. While Angelovski’s side showed their pluck and courage, they didn’t have quite enough to keep Austria out and Ukraine will be a harder proposition. The best betting tips might be in the goals markets, where the bookies are still offering 2.00 or better for over 2.5 goals. Both teams were in a goal fest first time out, will they tighten up for this one?
