England-Ukraine is a match on the second day of Group C of the Euro 2024 qualifiers and is played on Sunday at 18:00: predictions.
Italy had become something of a taboo for England in recent years, unable to get the better of the Azzurri in either the infamous European Championship final or the two Nations League matches. Without forgetting, then, that the last success of the English in the home of our national team dated back to the early 1960s, even more than sixty years ago.
Rice and Kane’s goals on the night in Naples dispelled that curse, bringing home three points that were extremely important in terms of qualification. Gareth Southgate’s selection had their revenge, exploiting the chaos that reigned undisturbed in the Azzurri’s half of the first half. In the second half, England pulled the reins in the boat, limiting themselves to defending the advantage and suffering the play of Roberto Mancini’s men, who were almost never really dangerous if we exclude the action that led to the goal by the oriundo Retegui. The coach of the Three Lions, however, has many reasons to smile and think positive: his England team appeared to be on the same wavelength as the one that was appreciated in Qatar, when in the quarter-finals they held their own against France and had to deal with a good dose of bad luck.
Ukraine’s unbeaten run in the European Championship qualifiers
Harry Kane, who had missed the penalty for a possible 2-2 draw against the French side, also quickly redeemed himself: the Tottenham striker’s goal against Italy took Rooney’s place in England’s top scorers’ chart to 54 goals.
Mudryk
On the second day they will face Ukraine, who are set to make their qualifying debut after being rested last Thursday. Under Ruslan Rotan, who took over from Oleksandr Petrakov in January, the Eastern European selection took to the field last week against Brentford Under-23s, winning 2-0. After missing out on qualification for the Qatari World Championships, Ukraine played an excellent Nations League, finishing second behind Scotland in League B Group 1. Mudryk and his teammates are unbeaten for 10 matches in the European Championship qualifiers, with their last away defeat coming in 2015. Chilwell will take the place of the disqualified Shaw on England’s left flank, while Bellingham, who came off badly in Naples, could be sidelined.
The Prediction
Everything points to a comfortable victory for England. Ukraine have some good individuals, but have fewer minutes in their legs than the English and few weapons to really challenge a national team of Southgate’s calibre. The hosts should also be able to keep their goal unbroken.
England v Ukraine line-up probables
- INGHILTERRA (4-3-3): Pickford; James, Stones, Maguire, Chilwell; Henderson, Phillips, Rice; Saka, Kane, Foden.
- UKRAINE (4-3-3): Lunin; Konoplya, Matvienko, Popov, Mykolenko; Malinovskyi, Stepanenko, Zinchenko; Tsygankov, Dovbyk, Mudryk.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 3-0
