Ukraine U21 vs Croatia U21 Prediction: Can the home side make this meeting one of the best?

Prediction for the match between Ukraine U21 and Croatia U21, which will take place on June 21. Check the team conditions and choose several betting options.

Ukraine

The Ukrainians were excellent in UEFA Euro qualifying, picking up 23 points from 10 games and only three points behind France, who secured a direct ticket to the final stage. They beat Slovakia 2:3 away and 3:0 at home in the qualifying rounds. The tournament will be held in Romania and Georgia and will be the third for Ukraine U-21. In 2011, the team failed to qualify for the group. But in 2006, they took the silver medals.

Are there any chances for Ukrainians to repeat the success of Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko's team? Of course, the team was stronger by name (Pyatov, Milevskyi, Aliyev, Mykhalik, Chygrynskiy). But even now, some players have already proven themselves at a high level. We mean, first of all, the Chelsea attacking midfielder Mykhailo Mudryk. In addition, we can not mention the main Shakhtar goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin, midfielder Artem Bondarenko from Shakhtar, who scored nearly 20 goals in the UPL; the forward Danil Sikan - the leader of this team's attack with eight goals in 14 games.

It must be noted that Ukraine played two friendly matches directly in June in preparation for the European Championship - they beat Kuwait 2:0 and played 2:2 against Ireland.

Croatia

Although this will be their fifth UEFA European Youth Championship appearance, Croatia has never achieved success like the Ukrainian U21 of 2006. Croatia's U21s had their best results at the previous UEFA European Championship, reaching the quarter-finals. The national side has collected silver and bronze medals at World Cups in the last five years.

At UEFA Euro 2023, the Croats, like the Ukrainians, made it through the qualifying group. In the qualifying group, the team, still led by Igor Bisčan, lost first place to Norway, and in the qualifying rounds, they beat Denmark with great difficulty - in the penalty shoot-out in the return leg (2:1 at home, 1:2 away).

Expert Betting Tips

The Croatians had a new head coach before the European Championship kick-off. Igor Bisčan, with whom Croatia U-21 reached the quarter-finals at the previous UEFA European Championship and qualified for this competition, took charge of Dinamo Zagreb, and Dragan Skocic, the former Iranian national team manager, was appointed in his place. It is difficult to imagine that such a coaching change close to the start of a major tournament would positively impact the team.

In addition, consider betting on high performance. The Ukrainian youth team has scored 20 goals in 10 qualifying matches, and the Slovaks have scored five goals in two games. The Croats have scored 28 goals in qualifying and the knock-out stages (12 games). At the same time, both teams also conceded an average goal per game at this stage. Judging by these figures, we suggest betting on TO in the upcoming match.