Preview: Ukraine vs. Iceland

Sports Mole previews Tuesday’s Euro Champ Qualifying clash between Ukraine and Iceland, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Path B of the Euro 2024 qualifying playoffs concludes on Tuesday evening in Poland, where Ukraine and Iceland square off for the right to advance to this summer’s tournament.

Sergiy Rebrov’s men eked out a 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina to advance to the midweek showpiece, while their Nordic opponents demolished Israel 4-1 in their semi-final.

Match preview
© Reuters

With 10 minutes of normal time to go in Ukraine’s showdown with Bosnia, the Blue and Yellow were on the brink of playoff heartache thanks to Mykola Matvienko’s unfortunate own goal, but the defender’s blushes were spared thanks to the Roman Yaremchuk show.

The Valencia forward – overlooked for a starting role – equalised for Ukraine in the 85th minute before turning provider for Girona hotshot Artem Dovbyk to head home the winner in the 88th minute, thereby keeping Ukraine’s qualification hopes alive in remarkable circumstances.

Forced to go through 180 minutes of playoff action owing to their third-placed finish in Group C, albeit only behind Euro 2020 finalists England and Italy, Ukraine will be present at the continental finals for the fourth time on the bounce should they come up trumps on Tuesday, in their adopted home of Wroclaw.

Rebrov’s men arrive for the Path B final in both good spirits and good form, having earned their third win from four matches with their praiseworthy comeback triumph over Bosnia, and their only two losses from their last 12 games in all tournaments have come to Italy and England.

While the Blue and Yellow are not taking to the field in their war-torn nation on Tuesday, they have strung together an eye-catching nine-game unbeaten run in ‘home’ Euros qualifiers since a 1-0 loss to Spain in October 2015 and have not conceded multiple goals in such a game since a 2-2 draw with France in November 2007.

Those aforementioned statistics suggest that an Iceland side lacking Ukraine’s continental nous have their work cut out to return to Europe’s top table for 2024, having failed to force their way into the Euro 2020 groups five years on from their historic run to the quarter-finals at the 2016 edition.

As was the case with upcoming opponents Ukraine, Iceland also had to fight back from a one-goal deficit in their semi-final with Israel, who went ahead courtesy of an Eran Zahavi spot kick, only to fall victim to an exceptional individual showing from Genoa hotshot Albert Gudmundsson.

Amid reports of interest from Tottenham Hotspur, the 26-year-old added a few more pounds to his value with a remarkable hat-trick alongside an additional strike from Arnor Ingvi Traustason, while a missed second-half penalty for Zahavi capped off Israel’s catastrophic collapse.

With friendly wins over Honduras and Guatemala also under their belt from January’s friendlies, Our Boys could now triumph in four successive games for the first time since October 2014, and doing so would earn them a place in Euro 2024 Group E with Belgium, Slovakia and Romania.

The visitors – now under the wing of Age Hareide – are no stranger to successes over Ukraine either, clinching a 2-0 victory in September 2017 during a 2018 World Cup qualifier, while two of the other three meetings between the Group E hopefuls have ended all square.

Ukraine Euro Champ Qualifying form:

Iceland Euro Champ Qualifying form:

Iceland form (all competitions):

Team News
© Reuters

While no Ukrainian players left the Bosnia semi-final with any debilitating problems, Girona wing wizard Viktor Tsygankov was absent from the squad entirely due to injury and is not guaranteed to be available for the showdown with Iceland either, although he is now training again.

Should Tsygankov not be deemed fit enough for a starting role on Tuesday, Yaremchuk has surely played his way into Rebrov’s thinking, although the Blue and Yellow boss will seemingly have to deviate from his 4-2-3-1 setup to a system with two out-and-out strikers in order to make room for the Valencia man.

As a result, Yaremchuk may have to try to play the role of super substitute again as Dovbyk leads the line, while Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko captains the ‘hosts’ from his familiar midfield position for the national team.

In contrast, Iceland suffered a double second-half blow in their crushing of Israel, where goalscorer Traustason and Blackburn Rovers winger Arnor Sigurdsson – victim of a red card-worthy tackle from Roy Revivo – were both withdrawn through injury.

While Traustason should be given the all-clear, Sigurdsson has pulled out of the squad and could supposedly now miss the rest of the season, and he is joined in the treatment room by fellow winger Johann Berg Gudmunsson, who is nursing a thigh injury which is more serious than first thought.

Gudmundsson did train on Monday and might make himself available, but if the playoff final does come too soon, Mikael Anderson and Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson should scrap it out to start on the right-hand side.

Ukraine possible starting lineup:
Lunin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matvienko, Mykolenko; Zinchenko, Brazhko; Zubkov, Sudakov, Mudryk; Dovbyk

Iceland possible starting lineup:
Valdimarsson; Palsson, Ingason, Gretarsson, Thorarinsson; Thorsteinsson, Johannesson, Haraldsson, Willumsson; A. Gudmundsson, Oskarsson

We say: Ukraine 3-1 Iceland
With Genoa talisman Gudmundsson in remarkable form for club and country, Iceland should not lack an offensive threat in Wroclaw, but a trio of injury worries is not what the doctor ordered for Hareide’s men.

As Ukraine possess their own revered options in the final third in Dovbyk and semi-final hero Yaremchuk, as well as celebrated names in all areas of the field, we can only picture the ‘hosts’ marching to a dominant victory en route to Euro 2024.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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