World Cup
2008-09-06 - Ukraine vs Belarus
A Sports Betting Pick by Trogdor
FIFA World Cup 2010 European Qualifiers
Saturday 6th September 2008 - KO 18:00
Ukraine welcome neighbor Belarus in their 1st match of WC2010 campaign.
Both teams will be looking to cause upset and qualify ahead of England and Croatia. And now that BATE became the first Belarus side to qualify for CL, it showed that nothing is impossible.
HEAD TO HEAD
Belarus and Ukraine met 5 times in competitive games, Ukraine having marginal lead (2-2-1).
The first game occurred 16 years ago back in 1992. It was the first competitive fixture for young Belarus team, which ended 1:1. The return leg was won by Ukraine 3:1. Seven years later Ukraine triumphed 2:0 and 0:0.
Finally, during LG Cup, Belarus won 3:1. The teams are quite different this time around and ready to write a new chapter in their histories.
UKRAINE
After failing to qualify for Euro 2008, old coach Blokhin was dismissed and Mikhailichenko was chosen and new coach. He lead Dynamo Kiev to Ukrainian championship and Ukraine U-21 team to European silver.
Personally, I believe he is a poor choice as he cannot unite players behind one goal and has quarreled with leaders. Nevertheless, he lead Ukraine to 3-1-1 record in recent friendlies and I am more than excited about the squad.
There have been positive changes to the team. Shevchenko and Voronin moved to AC Milan and Hertha should be emotionally relieved to leave England behind.
Milevskiy and Aliev are the hottest players of Ukrainian Premier League during the summer. Tymoschuk just won UEFA Cup and SuperCup with Zenit. The quality is there, let's see if it can be converted into quantity.
BELARUS
Belarus is a young and daring team and showed that it will not be pushed around. In the last 7 games, they posted 2-4-1 record, drawing consecutively with Turkey, Germany, Finland and Argentina. Say what you want, but that's impressive.
Belarus will rally behind their unquestionable leader Gleb, but I would be rather watching closely Bulyga and Kulchiy. While Gleb is nursing injury, those two will be constant threat to Ukrainian goals.
THE VERDICT
I think that based on sheer football talent/on paper Ukraine looks better and should win.
With Shevchenko and Aliev getting special attention from Belarus defense, midfielders Aliev, Tymoschuk, and Nasarenko will have the space to attack.
That said Germany, Argentina and Turkey are higher class than Ukraine and none of them could beat Belarus.
Take Belarus +1 AH @1.83.
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Belarus +1 AH @ 1.83I see this match ending as 1-1 or 2-2 draw, but can also see Ukraine nicking it by a slightest of margins.
