Slovakia vs Ukraine Prediction: Win to lead the group
Slovakia shocked the world when they defended their one goal lead to win their opening Euro 2024 encounter against Belgium. A result that many didn't expect to see from a side they thought would lose to FIFA's former world number one Belgium. Slovakia are ranked 48th on the FIFA Rankings with Belgium currently ranked third.
Slovakia scored an early goal through Ivan Schranz in the seventh minute and they were able to hold out to take home all three points. If they are able to secure all three points against Ukraine they will lead the group as long as Romania lose to Belgium.
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Team News
After making his tournament debut on Monday, Boavista's Robert Bozenik is expected to retain his place at the front of Slovakia's attack. Ukraine will be hoping Vitaliy Mykolenko is fully fit and can participate against Ukraine after missing the opening match due to a foot injury he suffered during warm-up against Moldova. Ukraine's coach Serhiy Rebrov may consider reshuffling his midfield and introducing Russian Malinovskyi.
Slovakia Predicted Line-up (4-3-3): Dubravka; Pekarik, Vavro, Skriniar, Hancko; Kucka, Lobotka, Duda; Schranz, Haraslin, Bozenik
Ukraine Predicted Line-up (4-2-3-1): Lunin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matvienko, Zincheko; Sudakov, Stepanenko, Malinovskyi; Tsygankov, Mudryk, Dovbyk
The Odds on Slovakia to win this match are set at 53/20, 23/10 for a draw and 28/25 for an Ukraine win. Odds on this game having over 2.5 goals are set at 10/9.
3 Way - Slovakia 53/20
This is a golden opportunity for Slovakia to top the group and secure safe passage to the next round of the Euros. Lady Luck was on their side when they faced Belgium. Besides taking that early lead, two Romelu Lukaku goals were ruled out by VAR in the 57th and 88th minute. Belgium's talented side fell short of starting their Euros off with a win. To put that into perspective, Slovakia had one big chance in that match and a total of 10 total shorts on goal. Their goalkeeper had to make five saves from Belgium's 16 shots at goal, 10 of which were efforts from inside the box.
That victory meant that Slovakia have three wins in their last three matches and no loses in their last four. They have also no conceded any goals in their last three games. However, they have not kept a clean sheet against Ukraine in their last three matches against each other. The last time they met, it was a goal fest, with Slovakia winning the match by 4-1 in the UEFA Nations League. Ukraine will have to dig deep if they are to get a result in this match, considering that they also have had a horrible start to their campaign. They lost by 3-0 against Romania in their opening game. This is after they had some inconsistent form building up to the tournaments kick off. They had a win, a loss and a draw in the three matches building up to the tournaments and now they find themselves at the foot of group E.
I think Slovakia will win this one.
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