Euro 2024 qualifiers: history of confrontations between Ukraine and Bosnia, Ukraine's performances at the Euro, bookmakers' favorite

Today, the Ukrainian national team will play its first playoff match for a ticket to the 2024 European Championship against Bosnia and Herzegovina. UNN decided to tell you about the history of the teams' confrontations, how Ukraine played in the Euro qualifiers and who is the bookmakers' favorite.

Details

Today, on March 21, Ukraine's national team will play its first playoff match to qualify for the European Football Championship, which will take place in Germany this summer. Our players' opponent will be the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The match will take place in the Bosnian city of Zenica at the Bilino Pole stadium. The starting whistle will be blown at 21:45 Kyiv time.

Ukraine has announced an application for the semi-final match of the Euro 2024 qualifying playoffs against Bosnia and HerzegovinaMar 21 2024, 12:22 PM • 22191 view

Qualifying round

The selection for Euro 2024 started in March last year. There were other teams in the group with Ukraine: England, Italy, North Macedonia and Malta. The first round, in which Ukraine played England, ended in a 2-0 defeat for our guys. The next match against the North Macedonian national team, Ukraine won with a score of 3:2.

This was followed by a 1-0 victory over Malta and a 1-1 draw with England. After England, Ukraine played Italy, losing 2-1. In the penultimate round, Ukraine convincingly defeats Malta 3-1. In the last round, Ukraine plays Italy.

Italy and Ukraine came into this match with the same number of points, but due to head-to-head meetings, Italy was one step higher than Ukraine. Ukraine needed only a victory to qualify for the Euros. However, the match was not very rich in scoring chances and ended with dry zeros on the scoreboard, which set the final result in the table - England took first place, Italy second, and Ukraine third. It should be noted that at the end of the match, in the time added by the referee, Italian defender Brian Cristante kicked Mykhailo Mudryk in the penalty area, which, according to many football critics, could have meant a penalty. But the referee of the match had a different opinion and did not even watch the replay on the VAR system.

Italy's goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma commented on Mudryk's fall in the penalty area.

"Mudryk's fall in our penalty area? At the moment on the field, I did not understand the situation very well. Later, after watching the video, in my opinion, the penalty could have been given. It's good that it ended that way. Now we are not thinking about it, we are thinking about celebrating and enjoying this hard-fought draw with a great team," said Donnarumma.

Interestingly, in October, before the decisive Ukraine-Italy qualifying match, UEFA President Alexander Čeferin openly supported the Azzurri. He called the possible failure of the Italians a disaster.

"Italy must qualify for Euro 2024. Otherwise, it would be a disaster. Italy is too important," said Ceferin.

Cheferin also made an ambiguous statement before the playoff draw.

"I am glad that three teams from the region are close to qualifying for the European Championship: Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. I would like to see Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia qualify as well, but they have no chance," said Čeferin.

The format of the playoff round has changed slightly this year. The best teams that failed to qualify for the European Championship directly will play in the playoffs. Who exactly has the right to play in the playoffs is determined by the ranking of the national teams in the previous Nations League draw.

The twelve playoff participants were selected based on their results in the UEFA Nations League in the 2022-2023 season. The teams were divided into three paths, each containing four teams, with each playoff path including two one-legged semifinal matches and one final. The three playoff winners will join hosts Germany and twenty other teams that have already qualified for Euro 2024.

If one or more winners of the League of Nations groups qualify for the Euros through group selection, they are replaced in the playoffs by the next teams ranked in the same group.

For example, Scotland qualified for Euro 2024, which gave Finland, the next highest ranked country in Division B, a ticket to the playoffs.

In the qualifiers for Euro 2024, Ukraine took third place in the group and did not qualify directly for the final of the European Championship in Germany. However, it retains a chance to qualify for the tournament through the playoffs, where the Blue and Yellows need to beat two opponents in Pool B.

If Ukraine defeats Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will meet the winner of the Israel-Iceland match on March 26 in the decisive match for a ticket to the Euros. If Ukraine qualifies for the group stage, it will play in the same group as Romania, Belgium, and Slovakia.

History of confrontations

The teams have played each other twice in history. It happened in 2021 in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Ukraine drew the first match in Lviv with the Bosnians, and a month later, Ukraine celebrated a 2-0 victory.

Who is the bookmakers' favorite

Bookmakers favor our players in this match. Bets on the victory of the Ukrainian national team in regular time are accepted with odds of 2.03, on the victory of Bosnia and Herzegovina - 3.85, on a draw - 3.65.

Bets on Ukraine qualifying for the next round of the playoffs are accepted with odds of 1.51, while the Bosnians' success is estimated at 2.69.

Ukraine on the Euro

The Ukrainian national team has played three times at the Euros. For the first time, Ukraine played in the final stage of the European Championship in 2012. Back then, Ukraine automatically qualified for the group stage as the host country along with Poland.

The second time Ukraine played in the Euros was in 2016, where it failed to win a single match in a group with Germany, Poland, and Northern Ireland and was eliminated, taking last place.

The best result of our national team's performance at Euro 2020, which was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. At that time, the Ukrainian national team played in a group with the Netherlands, Austria, and North Macedonia, where it took third place, which allowed it to advance to the ⅛ finals.

In the ⅛ round, thanks to a 2-1 victory over Sweden, Ukraine reached the quarterfinals, where it unfortunately lost to the future finalist, England (4-0).