UKRAINE, UNEXPECTED TEAM IN EURO QUARTERS

Ukrainian football received a major lift after a quarterfinal berth was achieved at the ongoing Euro 2020 tournament. The presence of Ukraine in the quarterfinals is a major surprise after their dramatic win over favourites Sweden in their last 16 encounter.

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Ukraine is surprisingly in the last eight at Euro 2020 despite sneaking into the knockout stage as one of the best four losers after finishing third in Group C behind Austria and group winners Netherlands, while first timers North Macedonia finished last in the group. As a matter of fact, Ukraine had the worst point tally of all the four teams who qualified for the knockout stage despite finishing in third place at the end of their respective group campaigns.

In their group, Ukraine lost twice and only picked up one victory which was against North Macedonia. Their opening match was against the Netherlands and it ended in a 3-2 defeat. The Ukrainians had pulled the game back to 2-2 from 2-0 in the second half before right wingback Denzel Dumfries scored the winning goal for the Dutch. Ukraine recovered from the unfortunate defeat to the Netherlands to beat North Macedonia 2-1 in their second group game before losing 1-0 to Austria in disappointing manner in their final game in Group C. The result against the Austrians ensured that the Ukrainians had to wait till the final day of the group stage to book their place in the first knockout stage at Euro 2020.

Ukraine will now face England in the second knockout stage after they saw off Sweden in the first knockout stage. The Swedes were favourites to progress into the quarterfinals at the expense of the Ukrainians but they could not see off Andriy Shevchenko and his players. Ukraine beat Sweden 2-1 at the end of extra time despite being underdogs and they will retain the same underdog status for the England game.