Slovakia vs Ukraine Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Joel Amorim Sep 07, 2015 @ 03:22 am

Next Tuesday, 8th of September 2015, Slovakia will go head-to-head with a highly motivated Ukraine at Stadion MSK Zilina for the eighth round of the 2016 UEFA European Championship Qualifying Round.

After conceding their first defeat of the present qualifying campaign at Oviedo last Saturday, Slovakia, who share with Spain the first place of their group, now have to overcome Ukraine if they don’t want to let the Spanish escape and even if they do not want to jeopardize the possibility of granting a place at the European Championship next year.

Slovakia had a day to forget at Carlos Tartiere in Asturias last weekend, as they were unrecognizable from the kick-off until the very end of the match. Kozak opted for a highly unconventional 4-5-1 formation with Robert Mak, who usually plays as a winger, alone up front in the middle of the Spanish defensive quartet. This unusual approach didn’t work at all and on minute 5’ Slovakia was already trailing behind by 1-0. On the 30th minute of the first-half, a somewhat controversial penalty-kick allowed La Roja to score the second and, in some way, this sentenced the match in the face of Slovakia’s apathy.

Jan Kozak’s men will need to perform much better if they want to take something positive from their match against Ukraine and they will probably return to their usual tactical formation for next Tuesday’s match.

Slovakia will, in case of winning the match, grant a place in the European Championship that will take place in France next year, since they will double their three-point advantage over Ukraine.

As for the Ukrainians, they put up a quality performance on their last Saturday’s clash against their neighbours and rivals of Belarus in Lviv. Ukraine are going through a very positive moment after their narrow defeat in Spain back in March and they have managed to score six times in their last two qualifying matches.

By the hand of the Andriy Yarmolenko and of Yevhen Konoplyanka, the Ukrainians have a good chance to cause a major upset to Slovakia at Zilina next Tuesday and thus changing places with them at their group table.

Dynamo Kyiv’s midfielder Denys Garmash was shown the red card in the last minutes of the match against Belarus and, for that reason, he will miss his team’s important match at Slovakia next Tuesday.

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