Ukraine – Belgium

The Belgian team should prepare for a tough match

The situation in Group E of the continental championship before the final round looks, without a doubt, the most intriguing and uncertain. Each of the national teams in the opening rounds won one victory and also suffered one defeat. Such statistics puts the goal difference in the centre of attention. Ukraine are slightly worse off now, having conceded three unanswered goals against Romania, which with a current goal difference of 2:4 makes them last in the quartet. It is logical that the Romanians, who have scored the most goals in the group, are doing the best. The national teams' objectives for the third round in the group are simple: the winners of the matches will definitely qualify for the play-offs from one of the top two positions. A draw among the four national teams will not suit only Ukraine. But even then only if the winner is determined in the meeting between Slovakia and Romania. In the meeting between the Ukrainians and the Belgians, bookmakers have expectedly chosen Lukaku and company as favourites, offering odds of 1.66 on their victory. For Serhiy Rebrov's team, the first match of the UEFA EURO was extremely bad. Going into the meeting with the Romanians, the Yellow-Blues were favourites, but they started conceding goals from the first half. As a result, the Romanian team not only defeated the Ukrainian team, but also defeated them 3-0. The second match in the group for the Yellow-Blues had all chances to be a failure, as the first half was lost again. However, the game against the Slovaks had a happy ending for the Ukrainian squad. In the 54th minute Shaparenko and in the 80th Yeremchuk converted the Ukrainian team from a losing team to a winning one. Rebrov's wards regained their confidence before the deciding match of the group. The Belgian team in the first match of the EURO seemed to continue the ignominious path of the past World Cup. The same unsure game, the same Lukaku's misses, and the same oddities with modern means of fixing touches to the ball - everything was against Belgium in the meeting with Slovakia, which ended with the score 0:1. In the second game, Belgium scored in the second minute against Romania and took the match to a 2-0 win with several opportunities to concede goals. The Belgians don't look like a team capable of winning against all odds, even with maximum tournament motivation. We bet that Ukraine will perform well.