Slovakia vs Ukraine

Group E of Euro 2024 gets back underway on Friday afternoon as Slovakia and Ukraine clash at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf. Slovakia made the perfect start to their Euro 2024 campaign with a surprising but deserved win over Belgium. Ivan Schranz struck after just 7 minutes and the Belgians could not answer as the Slovakians shut up shop to secure a 1-0 win. A win here would put them in a fantastic position to progress to the competition’s knockout stages, and with confidence in the squad sky-high, they’ll believe they can do it.

It wasn’t a fairytale start for the Ukrainians, on the other hand. Sergiy Rebrov’s men made a good fist of the game in the first half against Romania, but two more goals in 4 second-half minutes put the game to bed. That now makes this a must-win for Ukraine, who can all but kiss the competition goodbye should they suffer another defeat. There were some positives from the game however, Mykhailo Mudryk was bright and created a few chances. Ultimately, it was some poor defending and goalkeeping from Andriy Lunin that cost Ukraine the game.

Despite the contrasting starts, Ukraine is a narrow favourite with the bookmakers. That’s hard to justify based on their opening performance, particularly when compared to Slovakia. We’re siding with the Slovakians for this one, and the odds in the match result market represent great value. Yuhkym Konoplya put himself about and picked up a booking in the first game. This will be just as competitive, so he could get carded again. In the half-time/full-time market, backing Slovakia / Slovakia could be the shrewd option.

Check the table with our top picks below:

Finally, do not skip checking our predictions for the rest of Friday’s matches: Poland vs Austria and Netherlands vs France.