There are three more matches at Euro 2024 on Friday and we start off in Group E where two sides will go in search for three valuable points in Dusseldorf when the surprise package Slovakia take on Ukraine.
Slovakia downed Belgium in their opening match and now really only need to stay staying to come out of this group whereas Ukraine picked a terrible time to put in a shocking display in their first game and need to repair the damage here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on BBC1 in the UK with the coverage getting underway at 1.30pm ahead of the 2pm kick off.
Slovakia
There were a few surprise results in the opening round of games at the Euros but I think the most surprising of all was for Slovakia to beat an if not totally well-fancied Belgium side, one who were expected to win that match and win it well. I think it is fair to say that Slovakia rode their luck a little bit in that win with some very questionable VAR calls going their way but that isn’t their problem. Now they have the win they need just one more point from their last two games to progress to the knockout stages.
That would be a decent achievement but actually they were prepared to take the game to the Belgians when the chance arose in that first game so if they maintain that intensity and belief then there is no reason why they can’t push on and win this group from here which would give them a much friendlier contest in the round of 16. I do think they’ll need to tighten up a bit defensively but they face nothing like as strong an attack in this one.
Ukraine
After battling so hard against plenty of odds to get to this tournament the last thing Ukraine would have wanted is to put in the performance that they did in a truly horrendous defeat to Romania in their opening game. The loss was bad enough in a match they were widely expected to win and win well, but to lose it 3-0 has damaged their goal difference in such a way that there isn’t a huge amount of scope to slip up again in their last two games.
With a wounded Belgium to come in their last group match Ukraine simply have to win this match but their opposition will be well aware of that and you would imagine the opposing block would be lower as a result. It will be interesting to see if Ukraine have what it takes to break that down. One thing Ukraine definitely will need is a much better showing from their goalkeeper in this match as he didn’t cover himself in glory at all in the opener.
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Team News
If we assume that Ondrej Duda has recovered from the cramp he sustained in the win over Belgium then Slovakia will be expected to name an unchanged side as they go in search of the result which will get them out of the group.
Ukraine had to do without Everton full-back Vitaliy Mykolenko for the opening game and there are few vibes that he is ready for this one so Oleksandr Zinchenko is expected to continue at left-back. Roman Yaremchuk and Ruslan Malinovski came off the bench in the opener and will be eyeing starts here.
Betting
This is one of those second group games which are notoriously hard to bet on because you have one side who did all their hard work in the first match and just need to protect their position in Slovakia and we have a Ukraine side who damaged their chances in their opener but who can’t afford to lose again else they are going home so we could well add to the four draws that we have seen in the six second matchday contests so far. I would need to see a lot more from Ukraine before I trust them though.
I won on the opening Slovakia match in this tournament by taking the Peter Pekarik fouls and while I got lucky because I expected him to be up against Jeremy Doku when he wasn’t in the end, I think we can safely say that his direct opponent in this match will be Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk who has pace to burn and doesn’t need a second invitation to go down. Up against a 37-year-old full-back who will be playing a second match in four days having only played five games all season, this looks like a great matchup to exploit once again. We got two fouls from the Hertha Berlin match against Belgium and at a nudge over 2/1 I’ll back him to repeat the feat here.
Tips
Back P.Pekarik – Over 1.5 fouls for a 3/10 stake at 3.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
