Ukraine vs England

England’s pursuit of their first European Championship title continues at the Stadio Olimpico as they take on high-flying Ukraine in their Euro 2020 quarter-final encounter.

Artem Dovbyk’s last-gasp strike fired Ukraine past Sweden in the round of 16, helping them qualify for the quarter-finals in their first-ever European Championship knock-out appearance as a sovereign state. Interestingly, a 1-1 draw with Sweden marked Ukraine’s first Euro draw within regulation time. A hard-earned victory over the Swedes means the Ukrainians have picked up more wins (2) in their last three Euro matches than in their first seven in the competition combined (W1, L6). On the bright side, Andriy Shevchenko’s men have netted 2+ goals in all but one of their four outings at Euro 2020 so far, which hasn’t been the case in any of their previous seven encounters against England. Indeed, they have secured just one win in their seven meetings with this opposition (D2, L4), courtesy of a 1-0 triumph in a World Cup qualifier back in October 2009.

In the meantime, England made light work of their Group D campaign, finishing top of the section with two wins from three matches (D1), both of which yielded the same 1-0 scoreline. Additionally, England’s keenly-contested 2-0 victory over Germany in the previous knock-out round saw them progress into the quarter-finals as the only nation to keep a clean sheet at Euro 2020 so far. If they manage to keep Ukraine at bay, the ‘Three Lions’ will become the second nation to register five consecutive shutouts at the beginning of a major tournament since Italy at the 1990 World Cup. Worryingly, though, before the abovementioned success against the Germans, England had scored under 1.5 goals in five international games in a row.