DUESSELDORF, Germany – Substitute Roman Yaremchuk kept Ukraine in Euro 2024 contention with a goal 10 minutes from time to beat a shell-shocked Slovakia 2-1 and keep alive their hopes of reaching the next round.
Yaremchuk latched on to a flighted pass from Mykola Shaparenko and prodded the ball past keeper Martin Dubravka to deny Slovakia, who had opened the scoring, an early place in the knockout phase.
Ukraine made five changes from their miserable 3-0 drubbing by Romania, with winger Andriy Yarmolenko and goalkeeper Antoliy Trubin brought into the side and playing a vital role in the victory.
Slovakia started strong with Lukas Haraslin, Ivan Schranz and David Hancko forcing good early saves from Trubin early on before Schranz broke the deadlock in the 17th minute, earning his second goal of the tournament with a superb downward header from Haraslin’s sweet lobbed cross.
Ukraine battled hard to get back into the game, with Oleksandr Tymchyk hitting the post just after the half hour mark.
They got their reward after 54 minutes when Shaparenko found himself in space and fired cooly into the net after a Oleksandr Zinchenko cross and kept up the pressure throughout the second half until they snatched the winner late on.
“Our mental strength was shown to the best of our ability on the pitch,” midfielder Mykola Shaparenko said through a translator after scoring one goal and setting up another.
Ukraine’s first comeback win in the Euros in 12 years was also their third comeback win in four competitive games this year. More importantly, the Ukrainians remained in contention for the last 16 after substitute Roman Yaremchuk’s goal sealed the win.
Showing that Ukraine can fight, overcome obstacles and win “is exactly what Ukraine´s National Football Team is doing,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media after the game.
After two 2-1 comeback wins in the playoffs in March to reach Euro 2024, Ukraine result against Slovakia by the same score has revived the team’s campaign.
The next aim is reaching the knockout stages in the first major tournament for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022. That is likely to require at least a draw against Belgium on Wednesday.
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