Ukraine came from behind in Düsseldorf to give themselves a chance of progressing to the knockout stages of Euro 2024. Check out the best facts and analyse the Opta data with our Slovakia vs Ukraine stats page.
Substitute Roman Yaremchuk was the hero for Ukraine as his goal just 12 minutes after coming on to the pitch sealed a vital comeback win over Slovakia in Düsseldorf.
Serhiy Rebrov made four changes to Ukraine’s starting XI, the most by a team at Euro 2024 so far, after Monday’s disastrous 3-0 defeat to Romania. His selection was the youngest to start a match at the tournament so far at 25 years and 259 days old, while it was pitted against the oldest; Slovakia’s XI having an average age of 30 years, 233 days. In the end, youth told as Ukraine’s energy allowed them to fight back and beat the experienced Slovakians late on.
When Ivan Schranz scored the only goal of the game in Slovakia’s shock win over Belgium on Monday, it was his first international goal in nearly three years. Just four days later, he added another – just his fifth for Slovakia across his career – to put them into a deserved lead on 17 minutes.
Across qualifying for this tournament, 11 different players scored for Slovakia. Schranz wasn’t one of them, failing to score across 373 minutes on the pitch. In fact, he’s already attempted more shots at Euro 2024 (four) than he did in qualifying (two). Nobody expected Schranz to be the source of goals for Slovakia in this tournament, not even their own fans.
Now, with a goal in each of Slovakia’s games at Euro 2024, Schranz has broken the European Championship record as the oldest player to score in his first two appearances in the competition (30 years, 282 days), overtaking Bulgaria’s legendary forward Hristo Stoichkov in 1996 (30 years, 126 days).
Ukraine found a way back into the game in the 54th minute with their first goal of Euro 2024. Mykola Shaparenko put the finishing touch on a good Ukraine move, with the central midfielder timing his run to meet Oleksandr Zinchenko’s pass into the box with a slotted finish past Martin Dúbravka. Shaparenko became the first Dynamo Kyiv player to score at the Euros since Andriy Shevchenko in 2012, while it was just his second international goal and the first in nearly three years.
The match-winning strike came 10 minutes from full-time. After Shaparenko’s ball over the top, Dúbravka didn’t know whether to come or go and allowed the Ukrainian substitute Yaremchuk to expertly take the ball down and poke it into the net. That was his 16th strike for his national side, with the goal taking him one ahead of current coach Rebrov (15) in the all-time rankings, while it also made him Ukraine’s highest-scoring player in European Championship history (3).
Ukraine’s comeback win was the fourth seen at Euro 2024, which is already the same tally as the entirety of Euro 2020 with 32 games left to play in these finals. This win has also set them up to potentially come back from their opening-match defeat to Romania and qualify for the last 16.
Before this game, Ukraine were projected to get out of Group E in 40.0% of the Opta supercomputer Euro 2024 simulations. Although still the lowest of all sides in Group E, that chance has now increased to 59.3%, ahead of the next game in the group tomorrow, Belgium vs Romania. Should the Belgians defeat Romania in that match, all four sides in the group will head into the final matchday next Wednesday on three points, setting up an exciting evening of action.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Slovakia vs Ukraine stats from their Euro 2024 Group E clash at the Düsseldorf Arena.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Slovakia vs Ukraine Stats: Post-Match Facts
- After losing nine matches in succession at the UEFA European Championship when conceding first, Ukraine came from behind to win a match at the competition for the first time since a 2-1 victory over Sweden at Euro 2012.
- Roman Yaremchuk became just the second Ukrainian substitute to score at a major tournament, alongside Artem Dovbyk vs Sweden at Euro 2020. That was also his third goal at a major tournament, with only Andriy Shevchenko netting more for Ukraine (4).
- Despite losing 2-1 to Ukraine, Slovakia recorded their joint-most shots (14) in a match at a major tournament. They also recorded 480 successful passes, their second-most ever in a major tournament match behind only a 1-0 loss to Sweden at Euro 2020 (537).
- Slovakia have lost two of their last six internationals (W3 D1), as many defeats as across their 13 matches prior combined (W7 D4).
- This was Ukraine’s 13th match at the UEFA European Championship, but they’ve never kept a clean sheet – they are the only side with more than five games at the finals without a shutout.
- Slovakia’s Ivan Schranz became just the second player at Euro 2024 to score more than one goal, after Germany’s Jamal Musiala (2). He’s also just the second Slovakian player to score more than one goal at a major tournament, along with Robert Vittek (4 at 2010 World Cup).
- With his goal for Ukraine against Slovakia in this match, Mykola Shaparenko became the first Dynamo Kiev player to score at the EUROs since Andriy Shevchenko in 2012.
- Peter Pekarík and Juraj Kucka made their 12th major tournament appearances for Slovakia (World Cup/Euros), overtaking Marek Hamsík (11) as the most in the nation’s history.
- With an average age of 25 years and 259 days, Ukraine’s starting XI against Slovakia was the youngest named by a side at Euro 2024 so far – and the first, in fact, with an average age below 26 years.
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