Spain and Ukraine meet in a Group 4 match in the League of Nations. The match will be played on Sunday, at 19:45, on Alfredo di Stefano Stadium, without spectators.
Spain played in this group’s derby on Thursday. The Iberians were led until the 6th minute of extra time in the match with Germany, but they managed to equalize and get a point, thanks to the goal scored by Jose Gaya, Valencia’s defender. After the first stage, Ukraine occupies the first position in group 4, thanks to the success obtained with the score of 2-1 in front of Switzerland, a match played in Lviv.
An interesting aspect is the fact that both teams appear in this duel after a series of 12 matches in a row without defeat. At the end of 2019, Spain registered two categorical victories, 7-0 with Malta and 5-0 with Romania, both games being played on the Iberian field.
At the moment, Spain is not convincing either through the game or through the starting line. Ukraine does not have important names on the defensive, but from the middle up, the situation changes in a categorical manner. Stepanenko, a player at Sahtior Donetsk, Malinovskiy, one of the most important people in the Atalanta squad, Zinchenko, a player on whom Pep Guardiola relies heavily on Manchester City and Junio Moraes, the top scorer at Sahtior, are just a few of the names that can make a difference for Ukraine. With one exception, Ukraine did not lose by more than one goal to Spain, and, in our opinion, will not do so this time either.
-Spain is undefeated in the five direct disputes with Ukraine (four victories);
-The two last met in the preliminary group stage for EURO 2020, where Spain won both games 1-0;
-In the previous edition of the UEFA Nations League, Spain failed to advance to the group stage, while Ukraine won -Group 1 of League B, thus gaining promotion to League A;
-Spain has a world champion title (2010), three European champions (1964, 2008, 2012) and three Olympic medals, one gold (1992) and two silver (1920, 2000);
Spain: De Gea – Carvajal, Ramos, Torres, Gaya – Ruiz, Rodrigo, Thiago – Torres, Moreno, Fati;
Absent: Marco Asensio, Adama Traore, Mikel Oyarzabal;
Coach: Luis Enrique;
Ukraine: Pyatov – Tymchyk, Kryvtsov, Matvienko, Mykhaylichenko – Malinovskiy, Stepanenko, Zinchenko – Yarmolenko, Moraes, Konoplyanka;
Absent: Mykyta Burda, Vitalii Mykolenko, Artem Shabanov, Denys Popov, Vitaliy Buyalskiy, Volodymyr Shepelev, Oleksandr Zubkov;
Coach: Andriy Shevchenko;
PREDICTION: Spain to win @ 1,50
