The Euro 2024 play-offs get underway this week, meaning it’s time to preview the upcoming clashes and lock in our predictions.
On Thursday evening, Bosnia-Herzegovina welcome Ukraine to Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica, with both sides looking to move a stop closer to this summer’s tournament.
Will the Dragons triumph on home soil? Can the Blue and Yellow spoil the party? Keep reading to digest all the key stats and analysis ahead of Thursday’s clash.
📸📸📸 pic.twitter.com/WZpPaXhXJp— Ukrainian Association of Football (@uafukraine) March 18, 2024
📸📸📸 pic.twitter.com/WZpPaXhXJp
Bosnia-Herzegovina finished fifth in Group J, losing seven of their 10 Euro 2024 qualifiers while conceding 20 goals (2 goals against per game).
However, the Dragons won their Nations League group after suffering a solitary defeat in six matches, gaining promotion while securing a Euro 2024 play-off berth.
Bosnia-Herzegovina head into Thursday’s showdown in poor form, having lost each of their last three games, with 11 goals conceded in that time.
To make matters worse for the Dragons, they have lost seven of their previous nine encounters, with two victories over minnows Liechtenstein papering over the cracks.
As for Ukraine, they finished second in Group C – level with second-placed Italy on 14 points – dropping into the play-offs due to their inferior head-to-head record.
The Blue and Yellow lost just two of their eight qualifiers, picking up four wins and two draws in the process, but they narrowly missed out on automatic qualification.
Ukraine have lost only one of their last nine matches across all competitions, securing five wins and three draws to gather momentum ahead of the play-offs.
Trends also show that Ukraine have seen 20 goals in their previous five away outings (4 goals per game), meaning Thursday’s clash will likely be a high-scoring affair.
Head-to-head: The only previous meetings between these two nations came in 2021, with Ukraine remaining unbeaten against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Following a 1-1 draw in Lviv, the Blue and Yellow defeated the Dragons 2-0 in Zenica, courtesy of goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Artem Dovbyk.
Team news: Bosnia-Herzegovina are captained by veteran striker Edin Dzeko, who has scored 65 goals in 133 appearances for his country.
In addition to Zinchenko, Ukraine can call upon Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk, Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko, Valencia’s Roman Yaremchuk and Real Madrid’s Andriy Lunin.
When you couple Bosnia-Herzegovina's poor record in this fixture with Ukraine’s recent away results, all the signs point towards a high-scoring win for the visitors.
Forebet’s algorithm predicts that Ukraine will score over 2.5 goals on their way to defeating the hosts, booking their place in the next round.