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Another cracker of a game on the cards here, and after watching Slovakia beat Belgium on Monday, we think we may have a dark horse on our hands.
Don’t forget Belgium are a strong side, full of world-class talent, so for Slovakia to walk away with the win in, such an important game must give the whole team a tremendous amount of confidence.
As for Ukraine, like most viewers, we were disappointed by their performance. The gritty determination and pride for wearing the shirt is usually enough to carry them through, especially over the last couple of years, but their performance was sadly lacking against Romania.
Odds and Predictions
We were surprised when we first saw the odds for this game because the bookies have Ukraine as the clear favourites, but we are not so sure this is justified.
Ukraine are 2.10 favourites, with Slovakia at 3.70, the draw is priced at 3.30.
For our predictions, we were considering recommending the draw, but after careful consideration, we are going to begin our tips for this match with a win for Slovakia at what we consider to be generous odds of 3.70.
As for the scoreline, 2 – 1 to Slovakia at 13.0 is too good to miss.
We are also recommending a Betbuilder that is a little on the cautious side regarding the match result, ‘Slovakia win or draw’, ‘Over 2 goals’ and ‘over 7 corners.’
With odds of 6.0, this bet should give us a run for our money.
Comparison and Statistics from Past Meetings between the Teams
Slovakia and Ukraine have faced each other eight times in their history.
Slovakia has won two of these head-to-head matches, Ukraine has won three, and the remaining three matches have ended in draws.
The last five H2H meetings between the two teams are displayed below.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Nov 2018 | slovakia | 4-1 | ukraine | UEFA Nations League |
| 09 Sep 2018 | ukraine | 1-0 | slovakia | UEFA Nations League |
| 10 Nov 2017 | ukraine | 2-1 | slovakia | Friendly Game |
| 08 Sep 2015 | slovakia | 0-0 | ukraine | UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifiers |
| 08 Sep 2014 | ukraine | 0-1 | slovakia | UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifiers |
Expected Line Ups
Looking at these lineups, it is understandable why the bookies have made Ukraine favourites for this match, but we just can’t forget how well the Slovakia team performed against Belgium.
It could have been argued that they were lucky, but scoring an early goal and holding out for the win was a tremendous achievement.
Both of these teams will be up for it and we should see that passion in the Ukraine side, so it will be interesting to see if Slovakia can do a job on them in the same way they did on Belgium.
Slovakia (4-3-3): Martin Dúbravka; Peter Pekarík, Milan Škriniar, Dávid Hancko, Denis Vavro; Juraj Kucka, Stanislav Lobotka, Ondrej Duda; Lukáš Haraslín, Róbert Boženík, Tomáš Suslov.
Ukraine (4-2-3-1): Anatoliy Trubin; Oleksandr Karavaev, Illya Zabarnyi, Mykola Matviyenko, Vitaliy Mykolenko; Taras Stepanenko, Serhiy Sydorchuk; Andriy Yarmolenko, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Viktor Tsygankov; Roman Yaremchuk.
How Far Will These Teams Progress in the Tournament?
To say Group E is now a tricky group to predict would have to be an understatement.
Romania must be getting dizzy spells sitting on top of the group table, and if they can get a win or a draw against Belgium on Saturday, they will be favourites to go through.
If push comes to shove, we would say that despite Slovakia’s impressing against Belgium, we think that, along with Ukraine, both of these teams will exit the tournament in the group stages.
