Ukraine meet Austria in a must-win clash at Arena Nationala, Bucharest, Romania as both teams contest their final Group C match of Euro 2020.
Victory for either team would guarantee second and leave the other to await their fate in the battle of third-placed teams.
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Oleksandr Zubkov is set to again be absent for Ukraine as he continues to struggle with a foot injury suffered in their opening defeat to Netherlands.
Andriy Shevchenko otherwise has no fresh injury concerns to report ahead of this match and could name an unchanged lineup from the team that beat North Macedonia on Thursday.
Austria manager, Franco Foda is set to welcome Marko Arnautovic back into the starting eleven after the striker was suspended for Thursday’s loss to Netherlands following an offensive celebration in their 3-1 opening win over North Macedonia.
Stat Attack
- This is Ukraine’s first-ever meeting against Austria in a major tournament.
- Ukraine have won one of two previous matches against Austria, which both were played as friendlies (W1, L1).
- Austria lost their only previous ‘away’ clash against Ukraine (L1), losing 2-1 in November 2011.
- Seven of Ukraine’s last eight goals have been scored by Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk, with Yarmolenko netting four goals to Yaremchuk’s three.
- Austria have failed to score in four of their last five matches in all competitions (W1, D1, L3).
Prediction
Having lost their opener last weekend, Ukraine looked to have clearly learned from that defeat because they were impressive across the pitch in their win over North Macedonia, with a dominant attack coupled with a solid defence which now put their fate into their own hands.
Austria meanwhile lacked any passion in Thursday’s loss to Netherlands despite only losing 2-0 because they barely offered anything of note throughout, which should be a worry for Foda because they really need an immediate reaction.
Should they fail to do that and Ukraine start on the front foot controlling the game, I can see just one result coming although this should be a closely fought contest.
