Euro 2016 Qualifiers: Ukraine vs FYR Macedonia preview

October 11, 2014
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Ukraine vs FYR MacedoniaUkraine recovered well from the opening loss to Slovakia as they defeated Belarus on the road, but another win is a must if they are to remain in a good position to qualify.

FYR Macedonia needed an injury-time goal to see off weak Luxembourg at home and no doubt they will have to show a massive improvement in order to get something from L’viv Arena.

Having narrowly missed out on a place at the 2014 World Cup finals by suffering a 3-2 aggregate defeat to France in the play-offs, Ukraine were determined to make things right in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.

The team had to start the qualifying campaign amidst battles raging across the country and that might have had an effect on the opening 1-0 defeat to Slovakia at home.

However, it is important to note Mikhail Fomenko’s charges deserved much more from the game seeing as how they largely dominated the proceedings.

The coach experienced some problems ahead of the double header against Belarus and FYR Macedonia, with important attacker Yevhen Seleznyov withdrawing due to injury, and his key players involved in the Dynamo Kiev vs Shakhtar derby just few days before.

Nonetheless, Ukraine showed a lot of character to score two late goals and return to the right track with three points from Belarus, so they look a good bet at 1.40 (2/5) to see off Macedonia as well.

With no fresh selection worries to report, Mikhail Fomenko is widely expected to stick to the side side that started the Belarus game.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Fedetskiy, Kucher, Khacheridi, Shevchuk – Stepanenko, Edmar, Rotan – Yarmolenko, Zozulya, Konoplyanka.

FYR Macedonia haven’t enjoyed too much success since becoming a member of FIFA and UEFA in 1994, and they have been showing no signs of promise of late.

Bosko Djurovski was appointed a new boss ahead of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, with 5-1 loss to Spain enough to suggest he has failed to bring instant improvement.

The Red Lions then largely struggled at home against Luxembourg, needing an injury time goal to record a narrow win, so chances are they face a very difficult task in Ukraine.

Darko Glisic, Ferhan Hasani and Daniel Avramovski have missed out on the squad through injury, but Arijan Ademi made his debut after switching his allegiance from Croatia.

Key midfielder Agim Ibraimi is ruled out after suffering an injury against Luxembourg, while important defender Strefan Ristovski is banned having picked up a second yellow card.

Danijel Mojsov and Muhamed Demiri should be fit to play despite needing treatment for head injury during the Luxembourg clash.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Pacovski – Todorovski, Shikov, Mojsov, Cuculi – Ademi, Demiri – Muarem, Abdurahimi, Trajkovski – Kostovski.

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