Ukraine vs Belgium Preview & Prediction | UEFA EURO 2024 | Group Stage

Click here for today’s sports betting tips from our expert analysts!

After both of these sides started the tournament with shock defeats against Romania and Slovakia respectively, they then put in performances to earn much-needed wins and mean that Group E heads into its final round of fixtures with all four teams level on points.

KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Wednesday 24^th June, 2024 - UK – 5:00pm / US ET – 12:00pm / US PT – 9:00am

HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – BBC / US – FOX

HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – BBC iPlayer / US – VIX

UKRAINE PREVIEW: IN ADVERSITY

After a topsy-turvy qualifying campaign in which they eventually came from behind against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland in the playoffs, former Tottenham Hotspur forward Serhiy Rebrov led a Ukraine side into UEFA EURO 2024 which has been described as their ‘golden generation’ with an abundance of talent all over the pitch.

However, after losing their opening match by three goals to nil to Romania, they then found themselves on the bring of elimination when they were a goal down at half-time to Slovakia. An excellent and much-improved second-half performance saw them turn the game on its head, though, with strikes from Mykola Shaparenko and Roman Yaremchuk.

BELGIUM PREVIEW: ROARING BACK

Domenico Tedesco led a new look Belgian side into this tournament with quite a few selection dilemmas but the Red Devils seemed functional and like they could well be a threat. That, though, came under intense scrutiny after their opening match when they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Slovakia with an early Ivan Schranz goal.

There was a belief, though, that if they maintained their performance level from that match in which they were unfortunate to lose that they would bounce back straight away and it took less than two minutes for them to get ahead against Romania before eventually clinching it by two goals to nil in Cologne.

UKRAINE TEAM NEWS: MYKOLENKO REMAINS A DOUBT

The injury doubt of Vitaly Mykolenko has forced Oleksandr Zinchenko back to left-back but that did mean the arrival of goal scorer Mykola Shaparenko into the team. Taras Stepanenko could well come back into the eleven in place of Volodymyr Brazhko, too.

PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Trubin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matvyenko, Zinchenko; Stepanenko, Shaparenko; Tsygankov, Sudakov, Mudryk; Dovbyk

UNAVAILABLE:

QUESTIONABLE: Mykolenko (Injured)

BELGIUM TEAM NEWS: LUKEBAKIO OUT INJURED

Both Jan Vertonghen and Arthur Theate will have to remain doubts after being rushed back into the eleven against Romania but both are expected to be available. Thomas Meunier, though, definitely remains doubtful with Dodi Lukebakio set to be unavailable.

PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Casteels; Castagne, Faes, Vertonghen, Theate; Tielemans, Onana; Bakayoko, De Bruyne, Doku

UNAVAILABLE: Lukebakio (Injured)

QUESTIONABLE: Vertonghen (Injured), Theate (Injured), Meunier (Injured)

KEY STATS

• This is the first international match between Ukraine and Belgium.
• Ukraine are aiming to qualify for the knockout rounds at a second successive EURO final tournament after making it out of the group stage for the first time at EURO 2020.
• Ukraine’s victory against Slovakia was the fourth in their previous 13 EURO matches (L9). They have never won successive EURO final tournament matches.
• Ukraine have never drawn a EURO final tournament match.
• Ukraine have been winning at half-time in only one of their previous 13 EURO matches.
• Ukraine have lost their third match 1-0 in each of their previous three EURO group stage campaigns.
• Belgium are aiming to each the EURO knockout rounds for the third edition in a row and the fourth time overall.
• Belgium have won their group in two previous EURO final tournaments (EURO 1980 and EURO 2020).
• Belgium have won six of their last seven EURO group matches (L1).
• Belgium have lost only one of their last 17 international matches (W11 D5).
• Belgium have kept five clean sheets in their last seven EURO group matches.
• Belgium have drawn only two of their 24 EURO matches. Their last draw was against Italy at the 1980 finals (19 games played since then).
• Belgium have only failed to score in one of their last 11 EURO matches.
• Jan Vertonghen, Thomas Meunier and Axel Witsel have all made nine EURO appearances for Belgium.
• With his goal against Romania, Kevin De Bruyne became only the third Belgian player to score in two EURO final tournaments after Jan Ceulemans (1980, 1984) and Romelu Lukaku (2016, 2020).

UKRAINE VS BELGIUM PREDICTION

We could well be in for an absolute thriller of a final game. If one of Slovakia or Romania win the game between those two sides then a draw would be enough for both of these sides to progress but a draw in the other game puts all four in jeopardy. Ukraine will take the game to Belgium because they seemingly only know one way and that should help both Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, who both returned to form against Romania, on the counter-attack. Goals to be expected here.

UKRAINE VS BELGIUM TIP: OVER 2.5 GOALS