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First-half goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk handed Ukraine a vital 2-1 win over North Macedonia to strengthen their hopes of qualifying out of Group C at Euro 2020.
The relatively comfortable victory leaves Ukraine third in the group on three points with one game left to play against Austria on Monday. For North Macedonia, their chances of qualifying are slim with back-to-back defeats leaving them bottom.
After a bright start Ukraine squandered a great chance to break the deadlock in the 11th minute when Roman Yaremchuk elected to square the ball in a one-on-one situation, allowing Stefan Ristovski to slide in and clear.
But just before the half-hour mark Ukraine did take the lead and it was Yarmolenko with his second goal of the tournament. A corner swung to the near post was flicked on by Oleksandr Karavaev for the West Ham forward to direct across goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski into the opposite corner.
The goal left tournament debutants North Macedonia slightly shellshocked and Ukraine extended their lead six minutes later through Roman Yaremchuk. He coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner after a flowing team move to grab his tenth goal for his country. Goran Pandev chipped the ball into the net moments later for North Macedonia, but he was in an offside position.
North Macedonia responded well in the second half. First Heorhiy Bushchan parried away a low Enis Bardhi strike before they pulled a goal back. Bushchan originally parried Aleksandar Trajkovski’s powerful effort onto the bar before Pandev went down under a challenge from Karavaev. Ezgjan Alioski’s penalty was saved before he then fired in the rebound.
Ukraine substitute Viktor Tsygankov should have killed the game off in the 74th minute, but he fired his half volley on goal from close range wide and nine minutes later Argentine referee Fernando Rapallini gave a penalty after a VAR review because Daniel Avramovski’s handled the ball in the wall from a Ruslan Malinovsky free-kick. Malinovsky took the spot-kick but his driven shot looking for the bottom corner was well saved by Dimitrievski.