Sunday, June 5, 2011

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06.06. (Mon) 21:00 Ukraine - France

DID YOU KNOW?

Ukraine have already qualified for Euro 2012 as hosts along with Poland.
The Yellow-Blues have played a string of international friendlies, with their most recent encounter ending in a comfortable 2-0 win over Uzbekistan last Wednesday.
Before that, Oleg Blokhin's men slipped to a 2-0 defeat to Italy in March.
All-time top scorer Andriy Shevchenko has announced he will retire after next summer's championships. The former Milan and Chelsea star has 45 strikes to his name, three times as much as the next person on the list, Sergey Rebrov.
The Eastern Europeans participated in the Cytavision Cyprus Tournament in February, which they won on penalties against Sweden.
The last time Ukraine hosted Les Bleus was in a Euro 2008 qualifier, in which the sides drew 2-2.
Ukraine lie 35th in the World Rankings.

France laboured to a 1-1 draw against Belarus on Friday.
Despite the setback, they remain top of Group D, four points ahead.
Les Bleus were also below-par in their previous international friendly, in which they could only draw 0-0 with Croatia in March.
Before that however, Laurent Blanc's men recorded impressive wins over England and Brazil.
France prevailed 1-0 in the last time the two nations met in an international friendly, in 2004.
History favours the visitors, they have not tasted defeat against Oleg Blokhin's side in five games.
France occupy 19th position in the World Rankings.

PROBABLE LINE-UPS

Ukraine (4-3-3)
Pyatov; Kucher, Khacheridi, Mandzyuk, Shevchuk; Tymoshchuk, Rotan; Gusev; Milevskiy, Voronin; Shevchenko

Ukraine boss Oleg Blokhin has singled out the international friendly against France as 'important'. The national team tactician is without the services of some players such as Andriy Yarmolenko who are on U-21 European Championship duty.

Nevertheless, the optimistic coach has set a target of winning Euro 2012 on home soil, and has included the key players in the squad, including talisman Andriy Shevchenko, who recently announced he will be hanging up his boots after next summer's championship.

France (4-2-3-1)
Lloris; Sagna, Sakho, Rami, Evra; M'Vila; Diarra; Nasri; Ribery, Malouda; Benzema

Les Bleus endured a difficult time against Belarus on Friday evening, only mustering a 1-1 draw against their Eastern European opponents.

Laurent Blanc vented his frustration after the game at dropping points, and could be set to experiment with his side on Monday evening, with fringe players such as Marvin Martin and Kevin Gameiro expected to play some part in this friendly.

Prediction
Ukraine are a difficult unit to beat, especially at home, but with no points at stake, and Laurent Blanc's side able to express themselves, their fortunes could well change on Monday evening. A narrow win for the out-of-sorts visitors may well be the most probable result.
Editor's Prediction
Ukraine 1-2 France