This success could mean more for Ukraine?
Thursday sees the semi-finals of the 2024 European Championship semi-finals, and we’ll be covering roughly all of them, with this edition focusing on the Bosnia-Herzegovina-Ukraine clash. The visitors are the favourites in this encounter, with bookmakers offering an average of more than double the money on three-way odds.
The Bosnians have been lousy during the qualifiers for the European Championship, picking up just nine points in 10 games, six of which came against Liechtenstein, but they lost back and forth to Luxembourg, for example, to finish fifth in the last six, well behind the leaders…
Team news Bosnia vs Ukraine
Their qualifying position for the European Championship is due to the fact that they did well in the Nations League, finishing Group 3 in League B and thus qualifying for the elite. After that success, they had a change of captain, which is the reason for their weakness. In addition, Savo Milosevic is the third coach to take charge since Petev’s departure, but so far they have been lousy, losing their last three matches by a goal difference of 2-11…
As for their absentees, Gojak, Prcic, Hadziahmetovic, Stevanovic and Sanicanin are all out for Thursday, but the big names like Dzeko, Pjanic and Kolasinac are in the squad.
As for the visitors, the Ukrainians are doing well despite the fact that their country has been at war for more than two years and has not played at home for two years. In the NL, they finished second behind the Scots in Group 1 of the B-League (two points behind), while in their qualifying group for the European Championship, they narrowly missed out on a place in Germany…
Big-name absentees for the Ukrainians
They were placed in Group C, which England easily won, with Italy finishing second with 14 points. Ukraine also scored the same, but if they had beaten Italy in the last round in Leverkusen (a 0-0 draw), they would have qualified for the summer continental tournament. However, the Talians were able to celebrate thanks to their success against each other (they won the first leg 2-1).
Rebrov, who has been in charge of Ukraine since the start of the qualifiers for the European Championship, is doing well. However, he will be missing one or two (Kovalenko, Konopyanka, Yarmolenko, Styepanenko, Sobol and Krivtsov will also be out), but Dovbik, Yaremchuk, Mudrik, Chykhanov, Malinovsky, Zynchenko, Sidorchuk or Lunyin, the main key players, will all be in the squad.
Free tip for Bosnia vs Ukraine
The Ukrainians have a better quality team, not to disparage Milosevic, but also a better, more tactical and, more importantly, a much more experienced coach. Add to this the fact that they are in a much better position and that they won 2-0 in Zenica in the 2022 World Cup qualifying series, and there is no question that the visitors are the team to bet on on Thursday. That’s what we’re doing, albeit with an Asian handicap of -0.25, which is still a playable odds, but the only way we’d lose completely is if the Bosnians win.