Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times
Ukraine defeated North Macedonia 2-1 on Thursday, boosting their prospects of reaching the European Championship knockout rounds while leaving their opponents’ hopes hanging by a thread. Andriy Yarmolenko scored a goal and added an assist, leaving their opponents’ hopes hanging by a thread.
Yarmolenko put Ukraine ahead in the 29th minute after latching on to Oleksandr Karavaev’s flick-on and popping up at the back post to beat Stole Dimitrievski with a side-footed finish.
After receiving the ball wide on the right and feeding Roman Yaremchuk, who sprinted into the penalty box and curled a low effort past Dimitrievski at the near post, Ukraine’s captain helped increase the lead five minutes later.
After Karavaev fouled Goran Pandev in the 57th minute, Ezgjan Alioski scored a penalty to bring North Macedonia back into the game. The spot-kick was saved by Georgiy Bushchan, but the ball bounced right back to Alioski, who scored with his second effort.
After a video assistance referee intervention, Ukraine was awarded a late penalty after Daniel Avramovski was found to have handled the ball, but Dimitrievski saved Ruslan Malinovskyi’s penalty kick.
North Macedonia, who fell 3-1 to Austria in their first Group C match, now needs Austria to beat the Netherlands later on Thursday to extend their stay at their first major event.