Can the Slovaks Double Down on Their Dream Euro 2024 Start?

Slovakia vs Ukraine

Slovakia caused the first upset in Euro 2024 after defeating Belgium 1-nil in Frankfurt. With that win, Slovakia joined Romania atop the Group E standings, opening the cluster for an exciting ending to the tournament’s group stages.

Now, the Slovaks aim to double down on their success and will take on the disgruntled Ukrainian squad, which were recently thrashed by Romania 3-0 in their opening match.

At this point in the tournament, everything’s too early to tell. Nothing is set in stone, and every nation still has a chance to advance to the next round of the competition. So, read more below, as SBOTOP provides a comprehensive preview of Slovakia vs Ukraine.

Talking Points

Slovakia stun Belgium in their opening thriller

Against the prevailing odds before their opening match, Slovakia made a significant dent on the Belgians and joined Romania as the two teams to lead Group E after Matchday 1.

Veteran forward Ivan Schranz wasted no time and delivered Slovakia’s opening goal in just seven minutes in the first half, marking the fastest goal Slovakia scored in a major tournament.

The 30-year-old’s 7th-minute stunner was enough for Slovakia to get the win to blow Group E wide open and place Belgium on thin ice with Ukraine.

There are many claims that Slovakia’s win was controversial, as Belgium’s ace, Romelu Lukaku, found the back of the net twice, and twice he was denied after controversial VAR checks showed an offside in the 55th minute and a handball by Lois Openda in what should’ve been a late equaliser.

After claiming the pivotal win against Belgium, Slovakia can virtually clinch a spot in the Round of 16 if they garner a clean win against Ukraine, putting Ukraine in a difficult position.

Ukraine in desperate need to bounce back

Ukraine are in the middle of the table regarding where they fare against other Euro 2024 competitors in the FIFA world ranking. Hence, fans and pundits should take Ukraine’s catastrophic setback with a grain of salt.

Not to take anything away from Romania and their stellar form during their opening clash against Ukraine, but Serhiy Rebrov’s star-studded outfit doesn’t perform like that on a regular basis.

Despite losing to Romania 3-0, Ukraine took more attempts at the goal and controlled the possession game for most of the match. This fumble raises the question: Where did Ukraine go wrong?

Ukraine simply didn’t have an answer to Romania’s onslaught, and Andriy Lunin’s costly mistakes didn’t help their cause.

Maybe it’s the big-game jitters? Perhaps it’s their first third’s sloppy miscommunications or Mudryk’s failure to make any significant impact, but on the whole, Ukraine need to quickly polish things off if they want to get past the group stages.

However, winning their next two games won’t be easy. They’ll face a Slovakian outfit on cloud 9 before taking on Belgium, the highest-ranked team in their cluster. It’ll be a herculean task for Ukraine to stay spotless moving forward, but they’ll need all of the winning Euro 2024 results they could garner to continue their claim for European glory.

History

These football-crazed nations have faced each other on the pitch seven times in the last two decades. Slovakia won twice in those matches, while Ukraine got a slight advantage by winning three and drawing two.

Their most recent outing was back in 2018 in the Nations League, where Slovakia thrashed the Ukrainians with a 4-1 score line. That five-goal thriller also marks the biggest aggregate of their historic head-to-heads.

In recent form, Slovakia have won four games in a row, with their last win coming at the expense of their Group E rival, Belgium.

Ukraine, on the other hand, have won three and lost two in their last five. They recently suffered a humbling 3-0 clean sheet defeat against Romania, which forced them to settle in Group E’s basement coming into Matchday 2.

Betting Tip

Despite the thumping they suffered in their opening match, the Euro 2024 betting odds still have Ukraine as the 2.14 favourites, while Slovakia are the close underdogs at 3.43 with a draw price of 3.19.

As stated above, Serhiy Rebrov’s star-studded outfit doesn’t perform like that on a regular basis, and the odds suggest the same. Now that both teams have already shaken the first-game jitters off their boots, a more predictable outcome should be in order. This is why my betting tip is for Ukraine to win at 2.14.

Another great line to consider is Ukraine’s -0.25 Asian handicap at 1.83. It’s hard to imagine this match ending with a high score line, but it’s not a tall order to picture Ukraine ending the match with a win and a goal advantage over the Slovaks.

 

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