Ukraine v Slovakia background
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Article summary
Ukraine meet neighbours Slovakia in a competitive game for the first time in their opening UEFA EURO 2016 Group C fixture boasting a decent record in the teams' friendlies.
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Article body
Ukraine will take on their neighbours from Slovakia for the first time in a competitive international as the UEFA EURO 2012 co-hosts take a first step towards qualifying for the 2016 tournament from Group C.
Match background
• The sides have met in three friendly games, with Ukraine's record W1 D2 L0 (W0 D1 L0 at home – W0 D1 L0 in Slovakia). That sole victory was a 3-2 success in Limassol, Cyprus, on 10 February 2009.
• Artem Milevskiy's 82nd-minute penalty settled that match in favour of Oleksiy Mykhailychenko's Ukraine - the sides' most recent meeting, in the annual Cyprus international tournament. Vladimír Weiss's Slovakia twice came from behind with goals from Róbert Vittek (42) and Marek Hamšík (69) cancelling out efforts from Serhiy Valyayev (10) and Yevhen Seleznyov (47).
• In the sides' first friendly meeting, in Bratislava on 20 November 2002, Oleksandr Melaschenko's late goal for Ukraine cancelled out Miroslav Karhan's penalty (61) for Ladislav Jurkemik's Slovakia.
• It was 1-1 again when the sides met in Kyiv on 28 April 2004; Oleh Venhlinskiy (13) put Oleh Blokhin's Ukraine in front but Stanislav Varga (65) replied for Dušan Galis's Slovakia.
• In three meetings with Slovakia in UEFA age-group competition games, Ukraine's record is W2 D0 L1. The most recent of those games was a 2007 UEFA European Under-17 Championship game played in Italy, Ukraine winning 2-0.
• The six meetings between the nations' clubs in UEFA competition have left both sets of sides with identical records: W2 D2 L2, though the Ukrainian clubs have a 7-4 advantage in terms of goals scored.
