Slovakia vs Ukraine lineups: Euro 2024 team news, predicted XIs and injury latest

Evening Standard

·19 June 2024

Slovakia vs Ukraine lineups: Euro 2024 team news, predicted XIs and injury latest

Serhiy Rebrov faces difficult team selection after Romania hammering

The pressure is on Ukraine boss Serhiy Rebrov when he picks his team to face Slovakia at Euro 2024.

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A matchday one humbling against Romania has thrown the eastern Europeans’ plans off course and they head into Friday’s clash in Dusseldorf desperate for a win.

Rebrov must decide whether to keep faith with his first-choice starters who flopped last time out or pivot to a changed line-up after only one game.

Several players are at risk, however Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko is likely to continue at left-back while Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko continues to struggle with a foot injury.

His return would have seen Zinchenko move into midfield, where Ruslan Malinovskyi is an option to add some experience and attacking presence. Mykola Shaparenko and Georgiy Sudakov are both candidates to be dropped.

Roman Yaremchuk is another option having come off the bench to join Artem Dovbyk, the LaLiga top scorer, in attack against Romania - however that experiment failed to pay off. Rebrov is therefore likely to stick with Dovbyk for at least another game.

Andriy Lunin and Mykhailo Mudryk are set to keep their places despite poor performances in Munich.

Francesco Calzona could name an unchanged starting XI after Slovakia shocked Belgium to win their opening game.

Matchwinner Ivan Schranz is one yellow card away from a suspension, along with Ukraine’s Yukhym Konoplya, but that won’t factor into either manager’s thinking just yet.

Ondrej Duda went off with cramp late on last time out but is expected to be fit.

Predicted Slovakia XI: Dubravka; Pekarik, Vavro, Skriniar, Hancko; Kucka, Lobotka, Duda; Schranz, Bosenik, Haraslin

Predicted Ukraine XI: Lunin; Konoplya, Zarbarnyi, Matviyenko, Zinchenko; Malinovskyi, Stepanenko, Sudakov; Tsygankov, Dovbyk, Mudryk

Time and date: 2pm BST, Friday June 21, 2024

TV channel: BBC One

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