England vs Ukraine prediction: EUROPE: Euro – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-03-25 16:00.
A game of two halves kicked off England’s European qualification campaign as the Three Lions held on for a 2-1 win in Naples after a dominant first-half display. An early goal from Declan Rice and perhaps even the result itself was overshadowed by Harry Kane’s 44th minute penalty which took him to the top of the England goalscoring charts, surpassing the legendary Wayne Rooney. A difficult second half saw the Italians halve the deficit and the late sending off of defender Luke Shaw has given coach Gareth Southgate a selection headache for this game.
The clock is ticking on Southgate’s chance to end his England reign with some silverware, but first they must earn a fourth straight qualification to the European Championships. Standing in their way this time around is Ukraine, a side England have lost to only once (W5, D2, L1), and that’s a record they’ll hope to improve on after averaging 5.25 goals per game at home in the previous qualification cycle when they won all four games.
A trip to Wembley will provide Ukraine’s only competitive action in this break after warming up with a 2-0 win against Brentford’s second team last time out. This will be their first competitive game since Scotland painfully pipped them to UEFA Nations League qualification, and means caretaker boss Ruslan Rotan will be hoping for a ‘new manager bounce’ in his competitive bow.
Much like England, Ukraine are competing for their fourth straight Euro qualification and if they’re to achieve that, they’ll likely need to rely on strong travelling form once again. The Ukrainians were the only side in their group to avoid defeat in all of their away games in the previous cycle (W2, D2), including both games entered as outsiders in Serbia and Portugal!
Players to watch: Ivan Toney is in line to make his long-awaited England debut here after his incredible 17-goal haul for Brentford this season – four of his last five served as team openers. Some fine early season club form earned Mykhailo Mudryk a €100m move to Chelsea but he’s yet to score since his move to England, so this would be the ideal game for him to score his first senior goal for Ukraine!
Hot stat: England have led 1-0 at half-time in four of the previous eight H2H encounters.