Euro 2024 Fantasy team previews: Ukraine

Our Euro 2024 Fantasy team previews continue with a profile of Ukraine.

That they’re even at the European Championship is an achievement in itself, with war ravaging the country.

This is Ukraine’s fourth successive appearance at a European Championship, although they only made it past the group stage for the first time in Euro 2020.

In these country-by-country guides, we’ll be looking at the best players from each nation, taking a stab at predicted line-ups, reviewing the road to Germany and more.

To do this, we’ll be calling on the help of correspondents from each country. Here, we enlist the services of Fantasy Football Scout user Oleksii Zaiets (aka @olzts on X).

A recent addition to these team previews is a Premium Members section detailing the official Opta data from Euro ’24 qualification. This data has just arrived in our Members Area, so sign up today to gain access to the all-important stats you need for this summer’s Euro Fantasy game.

All prices given are from the official Fantasy Euro 2024 game.

THE ROAD TO QUALIFICATION

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff	Pts
1	England	8	6	2	0	22	4	+18	20
2	Italy	8	4	2	2	16	9	+7	14
3	Ukraine	8	4	2	2	11	8	+3	14
4	North Macedonia	8	2	2	4	10	20	−10	8
5	Malta	8	0	0	8	2	20	−18	0

Play-off results: Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-2 Ukraine, Ukraine 2-1 Iceland

Qualification through the group stage looked like being a tall order from the outset, with England and Italy one of the toughest draws Ukraine could have got.

On top of that, the national team were forced to play their ‘home’ matches outside of their wartorn nation. Four different countries hosted their home fixtures during Euro 2024 qualifying.

Despite the adversity, Ukraine were still in with a chance of progressing going into the final matchday.

Four wins and maximum points were taken off North Macedonia and Malta (doing it the hard way in all four games, coming from behind in two of them), while England were held to a draw in Wroclaw.

Despite defeats at Wembley and the San Siro, a win over Italy on the final day would have secured a passage to Germany. A tense game saw Mykhailo Mudryk (€7.0m) go close and have a penalty call denied but there was to be no breakthrough, so the play-offs beckoned.

There was more drama there. Two goals in the last five minutes saw Ukraine overturn Bosnia and Herzegovina’s lead in the semis, with Mudryk netting an 84th-minute winner against Iceland in the final.

QUALIFICATION IN NUMBERS

Most starts: Heorhii Sudakov (10), Vitalii Mykolenko, Illia Zabarnyi (9), Mykola Matvyenko, Mykhailo Mudryk (8)
Most goals: Viktor Tsygankov (3), Artem Dovbyk, Mykhailo Mudryk (2)
Most assists: Mykhailo Mudryk, Heorhii Sudakov (3), Yukhym Konoplya, Roman Yaremchuk (2)
Clean sheets: 3 from 10

UNDERLYING STATS

RECORD SINCE QUALIFYING

Date	Competition	Opposition	Result	Score	Goalscorers	Assists
3 June	Friendly	Germany (a)	D	0-0

Ukraine had to contest play-off matches in the March international break, so their only post-qualification friendly to date was Monday’s goalless draw in Germany.

Head coach Serhiy Rebrov went with a back five in a strongish XI, something he may do against Belgium in Matchday 3.

Rebrov has pledged to use all three goalkeepers in the warmup matches, with Anatoliy Trubin excelling against Die Mannschaft. The hosts had 27 shots to Ukraine’s six.

MOST RECENT INTERNATIONAL LINE-UPS

03/06/2024 – Germany (a)

(5-4-1): Trubin; Konoplya (Tymchyk 80), Zabarnyi, Svatok, Matviyenko, Zinchenko; Tsyhankov (Yarmolenko 64), Stepanenko (Brazhko 64), Shaparenko (Sudakov 73), Mudryk (Zubkov 64); Yaremchuk (Dovbyk 64).