Ukraine and North Macedonia, both beaten in their Group C opener, go head-to-head at the National Arena in Bucharest on Thursday afternoon as both teams look to chalk up their first Euro 2020 win.
With the best third-placed teams advancing into the knockout stages of the tournament, there is a lot riding on this fixture (14:00 KO) as a victory would go a long way to putting one of these two sides into the last 16.
Ukraine Ready to Strike
For 75 minutes of Ukraine’s opener against the Netherlands, it looked like the Dutch were on their way to a comfortable three points after going 2-0 ahead with just 15 minutes remaining thanks to goals from Georginio Wijnaldum and Wout Weghorst.
However, Andriy Shevchenko’s men showed great spirit as they hit back through goals from Andriy Yarmolenko, a superb effort to say the least, and Roman Yaremchuk to level the scores with 11 minutes of the game remaining.
There was still one last twist in the tale as the Dutch snatched the winner through Denzel Dumfries late on, but there were still encouraging signs from that defeat and momentum should be taken into Thursday’s encounter.
Where will the most goals be scored today?
| National Arena Bucharest
| Parken Stadium
| Johan Cruijff ArenA @bookingcom | #EUROfixtures | #EURO2020
— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 17, 2021
North Macedonia were beaten 3-1 by Austria in their opening match, which was their first at a European Championships, and although they produced some strong spells throughout the 90 minutes, they were ultimately second-best in defeat.
Ukraine, who beaten North Macedonia in both competitive games prior to this meeting, just seem to have that extra bit of quality in their squad and, at 5/7, they look like taking on to get the win.
Expect Goals in Romania
Neither of these two sides struggle in the final third, with Ukraine netting in each of their last seven contests while North Macedonia have only failed to find the back of the net once in their last 16 outings.
However, they both have their issues at the back and Ukraine have only kept two clean sheets from their previous 10, while Thursday’s opponents have only managed two shutouts from the last eight attempts.
Over 2.5 goals at 11/10 looks a solid shout, given the fact this bet has landed in the last two games for both of these teams.
Gent Ace Offers Value
In what is expected to be an open game as both teams go in search of the three points, there appears to be lots of value in the anytime scorer market and the 9/5 on Yaremchuk to net during the 90 minutes appeals.
The Gent striker netted 20 league goals during the 2020/21 campaign and he has taken that form into Euro 2020, having scored Ukraine’s second goal in that 3-2 loss to the Netherlands.
At 25 years of age, Yaremchuk, who is reportedly attracting interest from a number of Premier League clubs, is full of running and he will be relishing the opportunity to take on a suspect North Macedonia defence.
*All odds correct at time of writing.