Northern Ireland U19 take on the visitors Ukraine U19 in the round 1 match of UEFA Euro U19. The match will be played on Monday, July 15th at Inver Park (Larne).
Northern Ireland U19 could be considered a dark horse here. The "Green and White Army," with rare exceptions, are generally viewed as a team that sits just above the level of outright underdogs in both club and international football. This age group has rarely qualified for the European Championships and has generally not made an impact when they did. The previous cycle was a failure, and this time the team did not go through the qualification process, securing their spot among the eight participants automatically. Instead, they played friendlies, which were unsuccessful. They lost to Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Portugal in the autumn. Only in June did they manage to draw twice with Slovakia.
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Ukraine U19, when in the position of Northern Ireland 15 years ago at the "home" championship held in Donetsk and Mariupol, became champions. However, they haven’t repeated that success and haven’t always qualified for the Euros. This time, though, they performed well in the qualifiers. There were problems last November in the first stage of qualification, suffering a heavy 0-4 defeat to Kosovo. However, they had previously beaten Malta 3-1, and in the final match, they confidently defeated Slovakia, scoring four times without conceding. Seemingly gaining momentum, Mikhailenko's team secured clean-sheet victories in the decisive round of qualifiers in the spring, beating North Macedonia, Latvia, and even the nominal favorite of the group, Switzerland, with a 3-0 scoreline.
In 2016, Ukraine won 2-0. At that time, their lineup included Tsygankov and Pihalenok (who scored the goals), as well as Shved, Hutsulyak, Vasyl Kravets, and Shepelev. The "Yellow and Blues" are simply stronger, and home-field advantage is unlikely to compensate for that. We predict that the visitors will be able to secure a win here.
Prediction for the match: Ukraine U19 to win.
