Sports News of Thursday, 1 July 2021
Source: Betway Ghana
2021-07-01
Saturday’s match against England will be one the biggest games in Ukraine’s history
England’s Euro 2020 quarter-final opponents Ukraine came through a gruelling last-16 tie with Sweden – but showed with their formation flexibility in that match that they could frustrate Gareth Southgate’s side on Saturday.
Artem Dovbyk struck in the final minute of extra time to clinch a 2-1 win for Ukraine over Sweden at Hampden Park, just a few hours after England had dispatched Germany at Wembley, and the two sides will meet in the last eight of the competition on Saturday evening in Rome.
But what can Southgate’s players expect to come up against in the Stadio Olimpico?
Here is Ukraine coach Oli Yew with the lowdown.
“Really, the big winner on Tuesday night at Hampden Park was England. The match took it out of Ukraine and Sweden physically. But Ukraine did it when it mattered. Oleksandr Zinchenko produced a moment of magic, a superb cross, which was headed home by Dovbyk.
“Ukraine will pose a threat but the way they set up against Sweden will have thrown a bit of a spanner into the works for Southgate. We saw them in the group stage in end-to-end games but they really changed it up against Sweden, and that will keep Southgate guessing about what they might do in Rome.
“It was surprising that Shevchenko changed up the tactics slightly, in terms of their system. They usually play a 4-3-3 but he switched to three at the back and they played two holding midfielders.
“Ruslan Malinovskyi was superb for Ukraine during the group stage, he was brilliant against North Macedonia. But he dropped down to the bench, so they set up to deal with Sweden’s threat, they were a bit more cautious and looked to hit on the break. Expect the same approach in Rome on Saturday.”
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