Ukraine vs Belgium prediction, H2H and probable lineups - 20.03.2025
The first Nations League playoff match between Ukraine and Spain will take place on Thursday at the "Nueva Condomina" stadium in Murcia, Spain. I suggest betting on the outcome of this clash with a good chance of success.
Match Preview
The Ukrainian national team finished the League B qualifying stage in second place and will now try to advance to the elite division. The tournament start was challenging — the team suffered two defeats against Albania and the Czech Republic. However, the Ukrainians managed to stabilize their game, avoiding defeats in the last four matches, where they secured two wins and two draws.
In the previous Nations League edition, Ukraine also finished second in their League B group, conceding promotion to League A to Scotland. Incidentally, the Ukrainians have already played in the elite division in the 2020/21 season, but then they finished last in their group and were relegated back. In the last eight tournament matches, the Ukrainian team did not lose in six encounters (3 wins and 3 draws).
The Belgians openly failed the League A campaign, finishing only third in group 2. The team started the tournament with a win over Israel, but then lost form and did not achieve any further success — only one draw with four defeats. Notably, in the three previous Nations League editions, the "Red Devils" consistently finished in the top 2 of their groups.
The series of failures led to a coaching change: Domenico Tedesco was dismissed, and in January, Rudi Garcia took charge. In the last seven tournament matches, Belgium managed to win only once, adding one draw and five defeats to their record.
Probable Lineups
- Ukraine: Anatoliy Trubin – Illia Zabarnyi, Mykola Matviyenko, Vitaliy Mykolenko, Yukhym Konoplia – Ivan Kalyuzhnyi – Oleksandr Zinchenko, Oleksii Hutsuliak, Andriy Yarmolenko, Heorhii Sudakov – Roman Yaremchuk
- Belgium: Thibaut Courtois – Zeno Debast, Wout Faes, Maxim De Cuyper, Ameen Al-Dakhil – Alexis Saelemaekers, Charles De Ketelaere – Kevin De Bruyne, Leandro Trossard, Dodi Lukebakio – Romelu Lukaku
Match Facts and Head-to-Head
- The teams played to a 0-0 draw in their last match during Euro 2024
- No more than three goals were scored in 8 out of 10 matches involving Belgium in the Nations League
- The "Both Teams to Score" bet won in five out of six matches involving Ukraine in the Nations League
Prediction
Belgium has been looking frankly weak lately, and the coaching change clearly indicates that the federation is trying to turn the situation around. Bookmakers are betting on Belgium, but it is unlikely to expect a major victory from the visitors here. Our bet is "Ukraine to win with a handicap (+1.0)" with odds of 1.60.
