Ukraine vs Spain Betting Pick | UEFA Nations

UEFA Nations

2020-10-13 - Ukraine vs Spain

A Sports Betting Pick by Cruiser

Ukraine vs Spain
Football: UEFA Nations League
13th October 2020 – Kickoff time 20:45 [Kiev, Ukraine]

Introduction:

Ukraine goes into this match having lost to France in a friendly and also to Germany in the Nations League, but they will hope to put them behind them as they welcome Nations League contenders Spain to Kiev.

Andriy Shevchenko’s side were hammered by France 7-1 in the friendly meeting and after that suffered a 1-2 defeat at home to Germany, so this is a very important match for them now.

Ukraine

Since Shevchenko took charge of the team, Ukraine have won 20 and drawn 9 of the 36 matches they have played. Shevchenko's biggest achievement to date was finishing ahead of holders Portugal in qualifying for the European Championship next summer.

However their biggest loss here is that they will not have the services of star striker Junior Moraes who is currently in isolation. Marlos and Mykola Matviyenko are also out and this will be a big handicap to them.

Roman Yaremchuk is expected to come into the starting lineup to replace Moraes. Yaremchuk who plays for Gent, will hope to score here, while veteran Andriy Yarmolenko is the other option as he plays from the right flank and is closing in on a century of appearances for Ukraine and 50 goals to his name.

The player to watch for them here will be Ruslan Malinovskyi. He plays for Atalanta in Serie A and has no doubt increased his value after a series of stunning goals and displays.

In their last three matches, they lost to Spain 4-0, lost to France 7-1 and lost to Germany 2-1 in their last Nations League match. Other then that defeat to Germany, their other two matches played at home have seen them beat Switzerland 2-1 and beat Estonia 1-0.

Spain

Luis Enrique experimented with the side against Portugal in their friendly when he fielded the likes of Kepa Arrizabalaga, Sergio Canales, Dani Olmo, Diego Llorente and Eric Garcia. However, we will now see the likes of Sergio Ramos and Pau Torres returning to the starting eleven and playing in the middle of defence.

Even though Ansu Fati did not play against Portugal, he played against Switzerland and is expected to play in this match as well. The 17 year old who plays for Barcelona offers much needed pace and drive in the team.

Gerard Moreno only came on as a substitute against Switzerland despite he is the only recognized striker in the team and the striker who plays for Villarreal will hope he will get a chance to start this match after he came on late to replace goalscorer Mikel Oyarzabal in the 73rd minute. The other player who can score is Ferran Torres.

The player to watch for them here will be Adama Traore. He came on as a substitute to replaced Ansu Fati in the 57th minute but will be hoping to score here this time.

In their last three matches, they beat Ukraine 4-0, drew with Portugal 0-0 and beat Switzerland 1-0. Interestingly they drew their last three away games and all have been low scoring.

Past Meetings

Spain beat Ukraine 4-0 when the sides met in September with Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres and Sergio Ramos scoring two goals.

The other two times when Ukraine hosted, they lost 0-1 back in October 2015 and drew 2-2 back in March 2003.

The Statistics :

UKRAINE LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2020-10-10	L	1-2	H v Germany
	2020-09-03	W	2-1	H v Switzerland
	2019-10-14	W	2-1	H v Portugal
	2019-10-11	W	1-0	H v Lithuania
	2019-06-10	W	1-0	H v Luxembourg
	2019-06-07	W	5-0	H v Serbia

SPAIN LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2020-09-03	D	1-1	A v Germany
	2019-10-15	D	1-1	A v Sweden
	2019-10-12	D	1-1	A v Norway
	2019-09-05	W	1-2	A v Romania
	2019-06-07	W	1-4	A v Faroe Islands
	2019-03-26	W	0-2	A v Malta