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Euro 2020: England vs Ukraine Preview

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Euro 2020: England vs Ukraine Preview

England will be hoping they can qualify for their first European Championship semi-final in 25 years when they face Ukraine in Rome tonight at 8pm. Thanks to Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, England ended their 55-year wait to win a knockout game against Germany at an electric Wembley on Tuesday. The winner of this game will go onto face either Czech Republic or Denmark in the semi-final at Wembley.

This will be England’s first and only away match of the tournament, after playing their first four games at Wembley, and if they are to progress, their last two matches would also be at their national stadium. Due to travel restrictions, English fans have been asked to not travel to Italy’s capital. As a result it is expected that there will be more Ukraine fans in the Stadio Olimpico than England supporters.

Ukraine were the lowest scoring team to qualify out of the group stage, picking up only three points in group C, which was a narrow 2-1 win over North Macedonia. However, they went onto pick up a 2-1 win over Sweden in the last 16, thanks to a Dovbyk goal in the last seconds of extra-time.

England are unbeaten at the tournament so far, winning three games and drawing the other, They have scored four goals and are yet to concede one. Gareth Southgate is expected to have a fully fit Three Lions squad to choose from for tonight’s match, with Mount and Chilwell both back training with the squad after isolating due to fears of contracting Covid-19 during the match against Scotland.

Having played a 4-4-3 formation in all of the group stage matches, Southgate chose to implement a 3-4-3 formation against Germany which earned them a 2-0 win. However the England boss will have to decide whether to revert back to four in defense or not.

Harry Maguire, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice are all a yellow card away from being ruled out of the next match if England are to go through. When asked if he would make any changes to the team based on yellow cards, Southgate said that if he did “it would be an insult to Ukraine”.

Ukraine will be without forward Artem Besedin, who picked up a knee ligament injury in their win over Sweden. However, captain Andriy Yarmolenko is expected to be fit after being forced off with an injury. This is the first time Ukraine has ever reached the knockout stage at a European Championship, guided by one of their greatest players Andriy Shevchenko.

 

England predicted XI: Pickford; Walker, Maguire, Stones; Trippier, Phillips, Rice, Shaw; Foden, Kane, Sterling

Ukraine predicted XI: Bushchan; Zabarnyi, Kryvtsov, Matvienko; Karavaev, Sydorchuk, Shaparenko, Stepanenko, Zinchenko; Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk

 

Match Facts

Head-to-head

  • Ukraine have beaten England just once in seven attempts, winning 1-0 in the 2009 World Cup qualifiers. England have won four of them and two have ended in draws.
  • This will be the second time England and Ukraine have met at a major tournament. The only other time was in the group stages of Euro 2012, where England came out 1-0 winners.

 

England

  • England’s last three quarter-final matches have all gone to extra-time and penalties. After beating Spain in 1996, they then lost in penalty shootouts to Portugal in 2004, and Italy in 2012.
  • Germany are the only other nation to not concede in any of their first four games at a European Championship, who did it in 2016.

 

Ukraine

  • Ukraine’s only other quarter-final appearance, ended in a 3-0 defeat by Italy at the 2006 World Cup.
  • So far at this tournament, Ukraine have won two and lost two, scoring six goals.

 

We hope you enjoyed the article ‘Euro 2020: England vs Ukraine Preview.’ What are your predictions for the match? Let us know!

 

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Olly is currently doing a degree in sports journalism at Leeds Trinity University. He is an Ipswich Town fan and enjoys playing football and tennis in his spare time. His aspiration is to one day become a leading sports journalist within the online journalism sector.

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