Slovakia vs Ukraine: prediction & betting odds 21 June 2024

The Matchday 2 European Championship fixture between Slovakia and Ukraine in Group E will take place 21 June 2024 at 09:00 EDT / 06:00 PDT at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf. Slovakia vs Ukraine: prediction and betting tip, odds and stats for the Euro 2024 match.

Referee: Michael Oliver (England)

Matches – 10 (International matches, 2023/24);

Yellow cards shown (including second yellows) – 42;

Average yellow cards per match – 4.2;

Red cards shown – 1;                                           

Average fouls per match – 24;

Penalties – 30%.

Starting line-ups for Slovakia vs Ukraine

Slovakia (4-3-3): Martin Dubravka – David Hancko, Denis Vavro, Milan Skriniar, Peter Pekarik – Stanislav Lobotka, Ondrej Duda, Juraj Kucka – Lukas Haraslin, Ivan Schranz, Robert Bozenik.  

Ukraine (4-3-3): Anatoliy Trubin – Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mykola Matviyenko, Illia Zabarnyi, Oleksandr Tymchyk – Volodymyr Brazhko, Mykola Shaparenko, Georgiy Sudakov – Mykhailo Mudryk, Andriy Yarmolenko, Artem Dovbyk.

Slovakia

Francesco Calzona's side produced one of the biggest surprises of the current Euros, beating Belgium 1:0 in the first round. It should be noted that Slovakia also started the previous European Championship with a win, but then lost twice and ultimately failed to get out of the group. It is also worth saying that the team have problems with scoring: in 4 of their last 6 European Championship matches, Slovakia failed to score at all. 

• In their previous 12 competitive matches, Slovakia have lost only twice (8 wins and 2 draws). 1X –
• The team are on a 6-match scoring run in competitive fixtures. Slovakia, over 0.5 goals –
• At least one goal was scored in the opening 45 minutes in 8 of Slovakia's last 10 competitive games. 1st half: over 0.5 goals –

Ukraine

The team unexpectedly lost 0:3 to Romania in the first round of Euro 2024, despite having territorial advantage and outshooting their opponents. It should be noted that Ukraine also started the previous two Euros with defeats, and while in 2016 the team ultimately failed to reach the knockout stage, at the last tournament they did make it to the Round of 16. Even so, the national team's overall record at the European Championships is hardly encouraging: in their last 11 European Championship matches, Ukraine have lost in normal time as many as nine times.

• One of the teams failed to score in 8 of Ukraine's last 11 European Championship matches. Both teams to score – No –
• In their previous six competitive matches, Serhiy Rebrov's side have lost only once (4 wins and 1 draw). Ukraine Draw No Bet (0) –
• At least two goals were scored in 7 of the national team's last 8 competitive games. Over 2 goals –

Slovakia vs Ukraine: match prediction

In the upcoming match, Ukraine will surely add more aggression. In the first round, Serhiy Rebrov's side outperformed Romania in many areas, but posed very little threat to the opposition goal, and had their first shot on target only in the 77th minute. We are sure the Ukraine head coach will draw conclusions and not allow the same situation to happen again, as defeat in a second consecutive match would have a very negative effect on the team's prospects.

We think Slovakia are certainly beatable. The team do not sit as deep in defence as Romania, while Ukraine's main problem is their inability to break down a packed opposition defence. 

In our view, Francesco Calzona's side had some luck at the start of Euro 2024: Romelu Lukaku failed to convert several goalscoring chances, and two goals were ruled out. We would also note this pattern: at the previous two Euros, Slovakia recorded only one win. So we think the favourites in the upcoming match will still come out on top, therefore our prediction is: "Ukraine to win" at odds of

Author: Oleksandr Oleksenko