The Blue and Yellow host the clash with Iceland, who impressed in Euro 2016.
Ukraine national team takes on the visitors Iceland in the first-round of qualification to the World Cup 2018. The match will be played at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium on Monday, September 5th.
Ukraine showed the worst result in France at Euro 2016, finishing the last in the group with zero goals scored. The team wasn’t unite because of hatred between Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donets players. On top of that, the head coach lost his assistant, who was replaced with unexperienced Shevchenko. Now former AC Milan striker got the title of the head coach. The team didn’t change a lot since then and all the key players are still there. Ukraine spirits and determination made them the worst team of European championship and this is what new head coach should improve in the first place.
Iceland, in turn, are national heroes after all their deed in France this summer. While the hosts of the match couldn’t offer a battle to Northern Ireland, Iceland defeated England and advanced for the quarterfinal of the competition. Iceland don’t have world class players and they are strong as a team that knows how to adjust to their opponents and play solid defensively.
Ukraine and Iceland faced one another in 1999 when one of the fixtures ended with 1-0 win of today’s hosts and another one was 1-1 draw. We shouldn’t expect to see end-to-end football as neither of teams knows how to press their opponents.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 goals.
