Ukraine v North Macedonia betting tips: Opening defeats put pressure on

Preview and odds for the Euros Group C match

Ukraine and North Macedonia are both looking to recover from defeats in their opening match when they meet in Group C on Thursday.

Both teams are up and running in terms of goals but Ukraine were edged out in a thriller by the Netherlands while North Macedonia lost to Austria.

Thursday’s match in Bucharest is live on ITV and kicks off at 2pm as we highlight a few potential Ukraine v North Macedonia betting tips.

Ukraine v North Macedonia match odds

Ukraine will be encouraged by the way they gave the Netherlands a scare despite ultimately having nothing to show for their efforts in a 3-2 defeat.

Andriy Shevchenko’s men went 2-0 down but looked set to rescue a point when they scored twice in four minutes through Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk, only for a late winner from Denzel Dumfries to deny them.

That ended a six-match unbeaten run which included a draw with France so Ukraine should be confident of getting back on track and are 8/13 for victory here.

North Macedonia are appearing at a major tournament for the first time but their debut ended in a spirited 3-1 defeat against Austria in Romania.

Igor Angelovski’s side went behind to Stefan Lainer’s impressive finish but equalised in the first half when 37-year-old striker Goran Pandev became the European Championship’s second oldest goalscorer.

But, like they did twice in qualifying, they came unstuck against the Austrians, who secured their maiden win at the Euros thanks to efforts from second-half substitutes Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautovic.

North Macedonia have proved capable of causing an upset previously and will need to do so again, having been priced up as 5/1 underdogs while the draw is 11/4.

Both teams can be backed to score at 21/20 while over 2.5 goals is the same price.

Ukraine v North Macedonia head-to-head

Four previous meetings between these teams have produced only four goals and Ukraine have won both competitive matches.

Those came during qualifying for the 2016 Euros when Ukraine won 1-0 at home and 2-0 away.

Another Ukraine win to nil is 29/20 while a 2-0 victory is 11/2.

Previous XI

Ukraine: Bushchan, Zabarnyi, Mykolenko, Karavaev, Matvienko, Sydorchuk, Malinovskyi, Zinchenko, Zubkov, Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk.

North Macedonia: Dimitrievski, Musliu, Ristovski, Velkovski, Ademi, Alioski, Nikolov, Bardhi, Elmas, Trajkovski, Pandev,

Key battles

Pandev continues to be North Macedonia’s talisman and has repeatedly made history with his goal-scoring achievements.

He has a knack of scoring important goals and is 4/1 to be on target here while 11/10 is on offer for him to have at least two shots on target.

Yarmolenko and Yaremchuk give Ukraine more of an attacking threat and both players are 9/5 to add to the goals they scored against the Dutch.