Ukraine beat North Macedonia to earn first Euro 2020 win

Ukraine have got off the mark at Euro 2020 after a 2-1 win over North Macedonia.

Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk gave Ukraine a first-half lead before Ezgjan Alioski pulled one back for North Macedonia.

The result sets up an exciting final day in Group C, with Ukraine now level on points with Austria and the Netherlands ahead of their meeting this evening.

North Macedonia will be knocked out of the competition tonight if the Netherlands win and will still need to beat the Dutch next week if Austria avoid defeat tonight.

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Ukraine started as the strongest side but took a while to threaten the North Macedonia goal. Yarmolenko could have scored the opener when his shot was saved by Stole Dimitrievski.

The West Ham forward did open the scoring moments later when he finished low into the net after pouncing on a loose ball.

And it did not take long for Ukraine to find a second goal. This time, Yarmolenko teed up Yaremchuk to finish at the near post.

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North Macedonia were not out of it though and Aleksandar Trajkovski hit the bar from the edge of the area.

Oleksandr Karavaev then gave away a penalty to give North Macedonia a way back into the game. Alioski saw his spot-kick well saved by Georgi Bushchan but the rebound fell kindly for the Leeds wing back to pull a goal back.

Ruslan Malinovsky should have put the result beyond doubt for Ukraine when Daniel Avramovski handballed in the area, but the Atalanta midfielder’s penalty was saved by Dimitrievski.

Trajkovski nearly equalised deep into stoppage time but his shot went narrowly wide of the left post.

Cover Photo: “Euro 2020 street lights in Bucharest” by wuestenigel is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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1 Response

  1. 17/06/2021 22:03

    […] Ukraine beat North Macedonia to earn first Euro 2020 win […]

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