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Ukraine and North Macedonia will meet on Thursday in the second round of the Euro 2021 Group C. The match will be played in Bucharest.
Both teams lost their opening matches in the competition, but it happened in completely different ways. Ukraine put on a great showing against Netherlands, coming back from 0-2 down, eventually losing 3-2 in a quality match. North Macedonia on the other hand was well beaten by Austria, 1-3. While it’s true that the referee kind of had it against the Macedonians, they were still clearly the second best team in that game.
Ukraine has been quite solid under Andryi Shevchenko, they have a good generation of players and are playing good football, which was showcased in their opener against Netherlands as well. The mental strength to come back frorm 0-2 against such a strong opponent was remarkable too.
Credit to North Macedonia for their historic performance to reach this stage, but we have to be honest and admit that their qualification was circumstantial, starting with the expantion of the Euros to 24 teams, then with a very easy qualifying group, and finally with all the changes to the qualification system which allowed them a very open road towards the final tournament.
It has to be said that North Macedonia recently claimed a shocking 2-1 win in Germany in the World Cup qualifiers, but you have to feel that was an outlier, just one of those nights. Not long before that they were beaten by a very poor Romanian team, so it’s not like they had some great recent form.
North Macedonia hasn’t shown much against Austria, and right now the feeling is that Ukraine is even better than the Austrians. They have the offensive qualities to break down the Macedonian defense, which is key to avoiding a classic low scoring draw upset. I expect Ukraine will score relatively early and cruise the rest of the way.
One argument in favor of North Macedonia is the fact that they already played against Austria in Bucharest, so they are more familiar with the surroundings, but that can only help you so much.
Team news & lineups:
Zubkov is a major doubt for Ukraine, while North Macedonia will miss Nesterovski.
Ukraine: Bushchan – Karavayev, Zabarnyi, Matviyenko, Mykolenko – Malinovskyi, Sydorchuk, Zinchenko – Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk, Tsygankov
North Macedonia: Dimitrievski – S.Ristevski, Velkovski, Musliu – Nikolov, Bardhi, Ademi, Elmas, Alioski – Pandev, Trajkovski
I’m backing Ukraine here. They are the better team, and the eye test says they are playing vastly superior football right now. Prediction: Ukraine – North Macedonia 3-0.
Pick: Ukraine
Odds: 1.79 @ 1xBet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 6.32
Event date: 17 June
