UKRAINE dominated the first leg of this tie. Will Slovenia fight back on Tuesday? Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79) gives us his view.
Slovenia v Ukraine | Tuesday 19:45 | Sky Sports 4
Ukraine were the shortest price of all eight teams in the Euro 2016 play-offs to win their first leg match and they backed up the bookmakers faith by winning 2-0 on Saturday in Lviv. It’s now a big hill for Slovenia to climb to reach France next year.
The victory for Ukraine could have been by a wider margin but I’ve a feeling we’ll see a stronger performance from Slovenia this time round on Tuesday.
Srecko Katanec’s side won 10 of their 16 points at home in Group E and beat Switzerland, scored twice against England and took seven points out of nine against the other three sides in the group.
Slovenia managed to score in all five of these home group fixtures. Dig a little deeper into their past qualifying results and you’ll discover they’ve now scored in their last nine home qualifiers. Strong form alright.
Yes, Ukraine’s defensive record in this competition has been outstanding with just four goals conceded in their 10 match group. But when it really mattered against key sides Spain and Slovakia they were found wanting. Just one point out of 12 was picked up in these matches and this game feels just as important.
Having said that Ukraine will be buzzing after Saturday and you couldn’t rule them out winning again on Tuesday. However Slovenia need to produce something and I think they will.
We’ve seen how strong they can be at home and I think they’ll have a real go here. That sense of adventure may cost them overall as the Ukraine will be determined to spot any openings. With this in mind I’ll back Both Teams To Score at 23/20 with Boylesports.
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Slovenia v Ukraine – Both Teams To Score (23/20 Boylesports)
