Slovenia vs Ukraine Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Nov 16, 2015 @ 01:30 am

Next Tuesday, 17th of November 2015, the Ukrainian National Team will travel to Maribor to measure forces with Slovenia at Stadion Ljudski vrt for the second leg of the UEFA European Championship play-off stage.

When both sides met at Lviv last Saturday, the Ukraine put up a great display power and avenge the 1999’s defeat against Slovenia. The home side won the match by 2-0 but they could have even scored more two or even three goals given the considerable amount of goal chances they had.

Dynamo Kyiv’s star, Andriy Yarmolenko, opened the score for the Ukrainians on the 22nd minute after a superb individual effort inside the box. Mykhaylo Fomenko’s men piled on the pressure and had several chances to net in the second goal before the break. That didn’t happen, but in the beginning of the second-half, the Ukraine continued to push Slovenia against the ropes and Dnipro’s forward Yevhen Seleznyov scored his team’s second goal after a quality assist from Artem Fedetskyi.

Despite their impressive home win last weekend, next Tuesday’s match will certainly not be an easy one for the Ukrainians. There is an interesting thing about next week’s match, since it will take place exactly 16 years after Slovenia’s 1-1 draw in Kyiv that granted them a place in the Euro 2000.

Taras Stepanenko and Oleksandr Kucher, who missed last time out due to suspension, will be once again at Mykhaylo Fomenko’s disposal for the second leg match against the Slovenians.

As for the home side, Slovenia put up a very uninteresting performance at Lviv last Saturday and need to come up with a very strong comeback next Tuesday if they want to overcome the Ukrainians and snatch a place at the UEFA European Championship next year.

Last weekend’s defeat was the first in five matches against the Ukraine and might have inflicted a deadly blow to the team’s aspirations of being present in next year’s tournament.

Slovenia are certainly hoping to replicate what they did in 1999, when they overcame Ukraine at home by 2-1, although this time they need to achieve a bit more than that after last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat.

Slovenia

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LWDWL

Ukraine

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WLWDW

Possible Line-ups

Slovenia (4-4-2) - Handanovic - Brecko - Ilic - Cesar - Jokic - Kurtic - Krhin - Birsa - Kampl - Novakovic - Ilicic

Ukraine (4-1-4-1) –Pyatov - Fedetskyi - Rakitskiy - Kacheridi - Shevchuk - Rybalka - Sydorchuk - Garmash - Konoplyanka - Yarmolenko - Seleznyov

Injury List / Suspended Players

Ukraine - none

Slovenia - none

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions