Ukraine Team Preview – Overview
This will be Ukraine’s second appearance in this tournament but it is the first time they have successfully qualified for it having got in courtesy of being co-hosts four years ago. They had to come through a two-legged playoff which they did by beating Slovenia 3-1 and they might just be hitting form at the right time.
Ukraine have a modern style in that they can keep it tight defensively and hit teams with pace on the counter attack and that is a formula which is going to take a team quite far in this tournament I suspect. How far they do depends on if they can come out of the group and if the draw opens up but if they can finish second in their group all sorts of potential lies in store for them.
Statistics
Best Performance – Group Stage (2012)
Previous Appearances – 1 (2012)
Qualified – Group C Third Place – Qualified via Playoff
Qualifying Record
P-8 W-4 D-1 L-3 GF-11 GA-4 PTS-13
Beat Slovenia in Playoffs 3-1 on Aggregate
Fixtures
Germany vs Ukraine – Sunday 12th June, kickoff 20:00 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
Ukraine vs Northern Ireland – Thursday 16th June, kickoff 17:00 at Parc OL, Lyon
Ukraine vs Poland – Tuesday 21st June, kickoff 17:00 at Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
Squad
Manager: Mykhaylo Fomenko
Goalkeepers: Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Denys Boyko (Besiktas), Mykyta Shevchenko (Zorya)
Defenders: Artem Fedetskiy (Dnipro), Mykyta Kamenyuka (Zorya), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk), Oleksandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yaroslav Rakytskyi (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kiev)
Midfielders: Anatoliy Tymoschuk (Kairat Almaty), Oleksandr Karavaev (Zorya), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kiev), Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kiev), Serhiy Sydorchuk (Dyamo Kiev), Serhiy Rybalka (Dynamo Kiev), Taras Stepanenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Sevilla).
Forwards: Pylyp Budkovskyi (Zorya), Roman Zozulya (Dnipro), Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk)
Betting
Ukraine are another side without too many markets priced up on them so the one to concentrate on is the top goalscorer one where Andriy Yarmolenko is a 3/1 favourite. He’s a worthy favourite too but I don’t really want to bet at that price just in case they don’t come out of the group but with Germany in their first match there might be a chance to watch and see how that pans out before getting involved after the first game.
If someone else scores their only goal of that game but they get a positive result we might get a more attractive price on Yarmolenko knowing they could have plenty more matches. That seems a better option than the skinny 3/1.
Tips
No Bet
