After a largely dominated first period, Ukraine fared against North Macedonia (2-1) on Matchday 2 of Group C. With many waves at the start of the game, the Ukrainians stumbled over Dimitrievski for a time, but finally managed to find the fault by Yarmolenko (29th) then Yaremtchouk (33rd). Alioski pulled one out for North Macedonia in the second half, but it was not enough as Ukraine managed to maintain their one-goal lead.
Upon returning from the locker room, the Macedonians pushed and restarted the game with a goal from Alioski (57th), who took over in two stages a penalty rejected by Bushchan. Under pressure, Ukraine was never safe afterwards and even missed a penalty by Malinovskyi. Finally, despite the last tense minutes, Ukraine has imposed itself well to revive with now 3 points on the clock.
Macedonia is almost over. Unfortunately for North Macedonia, qualifying for the round of 16 already seems almost impossible. With two defeats in two games and one final match to be played against the Netherlands, Igor Angelovski’s men, 4th in this group C, will have difficulty recovering 3rd place (4 of the 6 best thirds have a ticket for the 8th). While waiting for the Netherlands – Austria match, Macedonia, at 0 points, is three lengths behind all its competitors.
