Ukraine vs Poland Predictions & Betting Tips

Ukraine were by no means favourites coming into a tough Euro 2016 group, but they were expected to put in a much better showing than this. They opened their tournament with an expected 2-0 defeat at the hands of World Cup holders Germany, but against Northern Ireland they were awful.

They were fully expected to go up against the lowest seeded group winners in the competition and get three points to keep their hopes of qualifying from their group alive and kicking. They held on to the ball for long periods of the game, but they couldn’t find a goal against one of the minnows of the competition. The opener eventually came from Gareth McAuley as he headed in from a free kick to give Northern Ireland a famous lead, and despite a few nervous moments and a temporary halt in play to wait for a hailstorm to blow over they rarely looked like losing the lead. Winger Niall McGinn then selaed the victory in stoppage time to eliminate Ukraine from the competition.

Ukraine came into the competition having won five and drawn one of their last six games, but two games later they find themselves bottom of the group with no hope of improving on that position, and the reward for a win against Poland will be pride alone.

Poland’s reward for winning could be the much greater prize of a guarantee to prolong their stay in France. They come into the final game of the group in 2nd position, level on points with Germany above them and a point clear of Northern Ireland. They now just need a point to secure their position in the next round, although a win could see them move above Germany depending on their result against Northern Ireland.

Poland opened the competition with a hard fought 1-0 win over a spirited Northern Ireland side, but they couldn’t build on that narrow success when they faced Germany. They weren’t expected to win in all honesty, but it may surprise a few to find out that they actually had the better chances to open the scoring.

Arkadiusz Milik squandered two golden opportunities in the second half after the first half failed to produce a single shot on target. Mario Gotze was ineffectual when employed as Germany’s central striker and was eventually hauled off in favour of Mario Gomez, but he failed to make a difference as well. Poland defended well against a largely toothless Germany side though, and they will be happy with a point against their rivals despite the fact that they should really have won the game.

This draw made it seven wins, three draws, and one defeat in their last 11 matches, so the dark horses of Euro 2016 are still well and truly in the race after a couple of decent performances. A big win against Ukraine on Tuesday could be enough to push them into the top spot as well.

It might not be a big win, but I can certainly see them taking all three points on Tuesday. Ukraine have looked disjointed and lacking in spirit after a good amount of them were involved in a mass brawl between Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian Cup Final at the end of the season. There are obviously still open wounds regarding this situation, and it’s showing in the football that they are playing.

I think odds of 21/20 for Poland to get the win against the dejected Ukraine side are excellent value as well, so I’m backing that along with a 2-0 correct score prediction due to the fact that Ukraine haven’t scored in either of their matches yet and Poland have kept five clean sheets in their last six matches.