UEFA EURO 2016: Ukraine team preview

Ukrainian football has churned out a number of highly talented players over the years. Shevchenko, Rebrov, Luzhny, Tymoshchuk, now young Konoplyanka and Yarmolenko. But even with these gifted individuals in their ranks Ukraine are yet to really make a name for themselves on the international scene.

Their best showing on the big stage came back in 2006 where they reached the quarter finals of the World Cup. Although they’ve never qualified for World Cup before or indeed since. As for the Euros, they had never participated until qualifying by default as the host nation four years ago, and once again they didn’t exactly do the nation proud as they failed to make it past the group stages, losing to both England and France.

EURO 2016 Squad 

Goalkeepers: Denys Boyko (Beşiktaş), Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Nikita Shevchenko (Zorya Luhansk).

Defenders: Artem Fedetskiy (Dnipro), Mykyta Kamenyuka (Zorya Luhansk), Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kyiv), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk).

Midfielders: Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kyiv), Oleh Gusev (Dynamo Kyiv), Oleksandr Karavayev (Zorya Luhansk), Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Sevilla), Maksym Malyshev (Shakhtar Donetsk), Ivan Petriak (Zorya Luhansk), Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro), Serhiy Rybalka (Dynamo Kyiv), Serhiy Sydorchuk (Dynamo Kyiv), Taras Stepanenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Kairat Almaty), Yevhen Shakhov (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Oleksandr Zinchnenko (Ufa).

Strikers: Pylyp Budkivskiy (Zorya Luhansk), Artem Kravets (Stuttgart), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kyiv), Roman Zozulya (Dnipro), Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk).

Key Player: Yevhen Konoplyanka

As mentioned above, despite being largely unsuccessful as a footballing nation, Ukraine have produced a few mercurial players over the years, Yevhen Konoplyanka is certainly one of those players. The 26 year old’s stock has risen over the past two seasons, and last summer he made the move to Sevilla in Spain after a number of good performances in the Europa League for Dnipro. This tricky winger often uses a combination of pace, skill and agility to stun defenders and create openings for his team. He is also both an outstanding crosser of the ball and a threat from direct set pieces.  There is no doubt about it that Konoplyanka is the talisman for this Ukrainian side, and will surely be at the heart of anything Ukraine manage to achieve this summer.

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Qualifying

Ukraine can perhaps count themselves lucky to be on their way to France for these finals. If the qualifying rules hadn’t changed, they would’ve missed out on yet another major tournament. The team finished third behind Spain and Slovakia, but won against Slovenia in the play-offs 3-1 on aggregate (2-0, 1-1). The Ukrainians showed themselves to be a decent side defensively during qualifying (only four conceded goals), but weren’t particularly inspiring going forward, scoring 14 goals in 10 games.

Group Matches

Germany v Ukraine – June 12, 2016

Ukraine v Northern Ireland – 16 June, 2016 

Ukraine v Poland – 21 June, 2016

Click here for the full Euro 2016 match schedule. 

Verdict

If we are to go by the way each team qualified for this tournament, then it looks as though Ukraine aren’t quite as good as their group opponents here. I don’t think many people would argue that both Poland and Germany are better sides, and it would be a fair assumption to think that this pair will finish above the Ukrainians. The game against Northern Ireland is likely to be crucial, especially since under the new format a third place group finish could be enough to secure a safe passage through to the last 16. Ukraine were in what looked a tougher group in qualifying and they showed plenty of defensive resolve (conceding only four goals) and on this basis they should have enough about them to get the better of the Northern Irish side.

Ukraine to finish third in this group looks a good bet and, at odds of 7/4, is one to be on. At the same time, considering their opposition, it will be difficult task for them to amass more than three points. Therefore ‘Ukraine Under 3.5 Group Points’ looks a solid secondary bet here.