Ukraine vs Finland World Cup Qualifier Preview

Ukraine vs Finland World Cup Qualifier Preview

Ukraine vs Finland will be a decisive match in Ukraine’s World Cup qualification campaign, as the zbirna needs three points against the Finns.

Following its first three matches against Iceland, Turkey, and Kosovo, Ukraine has collected five out of a possible nine points and sits in third place in Group I. Though it is disappointing that zbirna drew against Iceland and Turkey, as the Ukrainians had opportunities to win both matches, overall, Andriy Shevchenko has been pleased with his team’s performance. Now, as matchday 4 of the World Cup qualification approaches, Ukraine will have to shift focus to Finland in preparation for Saturday’s match.

There are some minor stakes associated with this match as well. Joint group leaders Croatia and Iceland will face one another on matchday 4, hence, Ukraine will hope to collect all three points at home against Finland as it seeks to keep up with the Group I leaders, where a potential victory and a Croatia-Iceland draw would lead to a three way tie on top of the table.

Following last month’s draw against Turkey and win against Kosovo, Shevchenko has also made some notable omissions in this round’s squad list. Dynamo Kyiv’s Yevhen Khacheridi and Serhiy Rybalka will not be traveling to Odessa as Ukraine looks to collect three points against Finland.

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It is assumed that Khacheridi’s quick temper, and Rybalka’s inability to break into the first team while Shevchenko has been in charge, are the reasons why they were not included in the squad list. Viktor Kovalenko, however, is a surprise omission. The Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder, who was the FIFA U-20 Golden Boot recipient in 2015, has had a good spell in this year’s Ukrainian Premier Liha and Europa League competition.

Matchday 4 will see zbirna host Finland. Finland have had a rough start to their FIFA 2018 qualification campaign. Finland first started the qualification period against Kosovo, which ended in a disappointing draw. The Huuhkajat (as the Finnish national team is often called) sought to rebound on matchday 2, when Finland traveled to Iceland.

Given its dominant performance, it appeared that the Finns would steal all three points in Reykjavik, but two stoppage time goals saw Finland fall to the Icelanders. And, most recently, Croatia took all three points in Finland on matchday 3. Thus Huuhkajat has only collected one point from a possible nine. While on paper Ukraine should be able to keep Finland at bay, the Ukrainians cannot underestimate their opponents, who seek their first win in four matches.

Overall, following Ukraine’s continued strong performance in October, Shevchenko’s side will seek to collect another three points against Finland in the hope of directly qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Ukraine will face Finland at Chornomorets Stadium in Odessa on Saturday for matchday 4 of the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualification campaign.

Futbolgrad’s Prediction: Ukraine vs Finland 2-1

Ukraine’s Squad

Goalkeepers: Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk); Denys Boyko (Beşiktaş); Oleksiy Shevchenko (Zorya Luhansk)

Defenders: Artem Fedetskiy (SV Darmstadt 98); Eduard Sobol (Zorya); Oleksandr Kucher, Bohdan Butko, Ivan Ordets, Serhiy Kryvtsov, Yaroslav Rakitskiy (all Shakhtar)

Midfielders: Taras Stepanenko, Maksym Malyshev (both Shakhtar); Andriy Yarmolenko, Serhiy Sydorchuk, Viktor Tsyhankov (all Dynamo); Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk); Ivan Petryak, Oleksandr Karavayev (both Zorya); Yevhen Konoplyanka (Sevilla); Oleksandr Zinchenko (Manchester City); Yevhen Shakhov (PAOK)

Forwards: Roman Zozulya (Real Betis); Artem Kravets (Granada CF); Artem Besyedin (Dynamo)

By Mark Temnycky –

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