Ukraine 2020 UEFA Euro Betting
The last year has not gone well for Ukraine on the pitch. They lost six of their eight games over the second half of 2020, and they had to settle for draws in each of their three World Cup qualifiers in late March. While Ukraine did register solid wins over Switzerland and Spain at home in UEFA Nations League A play, they were hammered 7-1 by France in a friendly and drew 1-1 against Finland and Kazakhstan at home. This team has not been consistent, so it’s hard to know what to expect from Andriy Shevchenko’s team in the summer.
Ukraine Squad Profile
UEFA Euro Odds: +15500
Coach: Andriy Shevchenko
FIFA Ranking: 24
Best Finish: Group Stage (2012 and 2016)
Group: C ( Austria, Netherlands and North Macedonia )
How They Got Here
Ukraine was one of the biggest surprises in qualifying. They went 6-2-0 in eight games with their only non-victories being road draws against Portugal and Serbia. Ukraine edged Portugal in Kyiv and blasted Serbia 5-0 in Lviv to win Group B and earn an easier draw in the knockout rounds. This team allowed just four goals in those eight games as Andriy Pyatov stood tall in net.
Team Preview
This is not the high-flying Ukraine we saw when Shevchenko was on the pitch. There isn’t a player as talented as the country’s all-time leading goal scorer up top, so Ukraine relies on its back line.
Pratov is the best goalkeeper that Ukraine has had since making its own national team after the fall of the Soviet Union. He is four caps away from 100 lifetime with the national team, and his GAA is the best of any goalie with at least seven starts. That’s why he is the captain and plays for one of the most successful domestic teams in Shakhtar Donetsk.
Ukraine’s two biggest clubs employ a lot of the probable starters on this team. Six players from Shakhtar Donetsk and eight players from Dynamo Kyiv were among the players most recently called up to play for the national team. Vitaly Mykolenko, Mykola Matviyenko, Oleksandr Karavayev, and Serhiy Kryvtsov are among those that play for one of the two big domestic clubs, and they will constitute a huge portion of Ukraine’s defense.
The most prominent player in the midfield will be Oleksandr Zinchenko. Zinchenko is used in a variety of ways by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, so don’t be surprised if Shevchenko uses him in that kind of a Swiss-Army knife type of role too. Atalanta’s Ruslan Malinovskyi and Viktor Kovalenko could see a good bit of action too in the midfield, although the two other stars will be the country’s two active leading goal scorers.
Andriy Yarmolenko (38 goals) and Yevhen Konoplyanka (21 goals) will be counted upon to provide the scoring for Ukraine. Yarmolenko has suffered two major injuries since joining West Ham United in October 2018, so there is a concern over his fitness level this summer.
The other forwards aren’t anything special. Roman Yaremchuk, Junior Moraes, and Artem Kravets can’t create much by themselves, so we will see much of the offense come from Zinchenko, Yarmolenko, and Konoplyanka.
Ukraine Schedule
GROUP STAGE
Sunday June 13
Netherlands vs. Ukraine (Amsterdam; 3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m.)
Thursday June 17
Ukraine vs. North Macedonia (Bucharest; 9 a.m. ET, 3 p.m.)
Monday June 21
Ukraine vs. Austria (Bucharest; noon ET, 6 p.m.)
Ukraine’s History at the European Championships
Ukraine did not have its own national team until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The national team was recognized by FIFA in 1992, and they have only made it to the World Cup one time. That appearance came in 2006 when Ukraine was a Cinderella and made it to the quarterfinals in its debut trip to the grand stage.
After a disastrous 4-0 loss to eventual champions Spain in its first-ever World Cup game, Ukraine throttled Saudi Arabia 4-0 and then edged Tunisia 1-0 to make the knockout rounds. They went on to advanced in penalties over Switzerland after 120 minutes of scoreless football before losing 3-0 to Italy in the quarterfinals.
It’s been an even more difficult time at the Euros for Ukraine. The country failed to qualify for this competition in its first four attempts, and Ukraine failed to make it out of the Group Stage despite co-hosting the 2012 Euros with Poland. Ukraine was drawn into the Group of Death with England, France, and Sweden, and although they beat Sweden, they failed to register a goal against the two heavyweights.
Ukraine failed to score a goal at the 2016 Euros. They lost all three of their games to Germany, Northern Ireland, and Poland to finish dead last in the tournament.
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