Ukraine Ol. vs Morocco Ol. prediction: WORLD: Olympic Games betting tips on match 2024-07-26 15:00.
[p]The excitement of appearing in their first-ever Olympic Games perhaps got the better of Ukraine, who slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Iraq in their Group B opener despite having opened the scoring. They’ll be feeling the pressure of a potential early exit should things not go their way here against Morocco, and they’ll be leaning on their manager Ruslan Rotan to come up with a plan having seen it all during the 100 caps he earned for the senior national side during his playing career.[/p]
[p]Rotan has certainly shown elements of being able to get the best out of his team, having guided Ukraine to the semi-finals of last year’s UEFA European Under-21 Championship, before going on to win the Maurice Revello tournament earlier this summer. Therefore, the Ukrainian fans will be hoping that the loss to Iraq is just a bump in the road and that their side will be able to reignite the form that saw them piece together an eight-game unbeaten run (W6, D2) prior to that loss. [/p]
[p]Morocco would’ve had a few more hours of rest than their opposition after they co-opened the tournament against Argentina, a game that ended 2-1 in the most dramatic fashion. Morocco had gone two goals up before Argentina pulled one back in the 68th minute, and it seemed the comeback was complete after Cristian Medina had headed home in the 16th minute of injury time, but that’s when the chaos ensued.[/p]
[p]Moroccan fans then invaded the pitch and their disorderly behaviour caused the game to be suspended with just minutes to go. The teams then remerged two or so hours later to complete the game behind closed doors, all the while VAR had ruled out Argentina’s equaliser for offside, granting Morocco the three points and putting them in an ideal position to advance from the group stages for the first time since the Munich games in 1972 should they capitalise.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Ukraine’s Dmytro Kryskiv will be keen on making an early impact here, since he’s netted six of his last eight goals for club Shakhtar Donetsk before half-time. Morocco’s scorer of a brace against Argentina Soufiane Rahimi will hope to have something to say about that, having scored four of his last six goals after half-time.[/p]
[p]Hot streak: None of Morocco’s last seven games at the Olympics have been decided by a margin of two or more goals.[/p]
[p][i]Written by: Peter Stavrinou.[/i][/p]