International
2008-11-19 - Ukraine vs Norway
A Sports Betting Pick by Vlad
International Friendly
Dnepropetrovsk - Ukraine
Wednesday 19th November 2008 - Kickoff 18:00
Ukraine (FIFA rank 20) will host Norway (rank 54).
Ukraine is unbeaten in last 5 matches but to be honest they perfomed very poor. They where lucky to beat Belarus by penalty on 94th min and also lucky to get 0-0 draw against Croatia.
Norway had poor start in World Cup qualifying campaign, so far they've lost 1 game (against Netherlands) and drawn the other two against Iceland and Scotland.
This game the Ukraine coach Myhailechenko will play with a very experimental squad. In my opinion Myhailechenko himself is not ready yet to lead Ukraine to World Cup as he doesn't have enough experience as well.
It is very important to note that Sheva (AC Milan), Voronin (Hertha), Tymoschuk (Zenit) will all not play!
Only young Ukrainian players from national league were invited and they never played together before and they don't have enough experience yet to play on this level.
Ukraine is an average team and they need new leaders to replace the old masters like Sheva, Voronin, Tymoshcuk and at the moment I just can't see these leaders.
I think in this game they will try to get used to each other and they will need at least 5-7 games to play as one team.
Squad News :
Ukraine's squad :
Keepers : Bogush(Dynamo), Pyatov(Shakhtar)
Defence : Rusol(Dnipro), Kucher(Shakhtar), Mandzuk(Arsenal),
Midfield : Aliev(Dynamo), Slyusar(Metalist), Kravcheko(Vorskla), Nazarenko(Dnipro).
Striker : Milevsky(Dynamo), Devich(Metalist), Gomenuk(Tavria), Seleznyov(Shakhtar)
Ukraine is missing few key defenders from Dynamo who are injured.
Norway Squad :
A couple of key players Carew(Aston Villa), Pederson(Blackburn) are in the squad, and also a few players from Heerenveen, Le Mans, Stabaek, Bodo.
THE VERDICT
Ukraine will be very weak in this match without Sheva, Voronin and Tymoschuk. They are young, ambitious but with lack of experience.
I think Norway will play defensive and wait for Ukraine to make a mistake. I don't expect many goals in this game so under 2.5 goals should be a good bet.
I will be very surprised if Ukraine will win this game. In my eyes it looks like a draw and my main bet will be Norway x2 (double chance).
