Netherlands vs Ukraine: UEFA EURO 2020 match background, facts and stats

The Netherlands will hope for a repeat of their only previous home fixture against Ukraine when the teams meet in Amsterdam on the opening day of UEFA EURO 2020 Group C.

• While the Dutch are making their return to the final tournament after missing out in 2016, Ukraine are featuring at a EURO for the third time, both in succession and overall.

• This is a tenth EURO appearance for the Netherlands, champions in 1988.

Previous meetings

• This is a first competitive meeting for the teams, whose two previous fixtures were both friendlies.

• The sides first met in Rotterdam on 24 May 2008, goals from Dirk Kuyt (24), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (38) and Ryan Babel (64) earning Marco van Basten's home team a 3-0 victory at the Stadion Feijenoord against a Ukraine side coached by Oleksiy Mykhailychenko. Van Basten and Mykhailychenko had been on opposing sides in the final of EURO '88, the Dutchman scoring a famous volley in a 2-0 victory against the Soviet Union.

• Both coaches had changed by the time the teams reconvened for another friendly at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk on 11 August 2010. Bert van Marwijk's visitors, playing their first match since losing the FIFA World Cup final to Spain, took a 73rd-minute lead through Jeremain Lens, but Oleksandr Aliyev levelled two minutes later for Ukraine, who were then coached – for the last time – by Myron Markevich.

• Current Ukraine coach Andriy Shevchenko featured in both those games. Andriy Pyatov played 90 minutes in the Donetsk draw.

EURO facts: Netherlands

• The Netherlands have appeared in nine previous UEFA European Championship final tournaments; they missed out on UEFA EURO 2016, the first time they had not featured in a EURO since 1984.

• Champions in 1988 – their sole major international trophy – the Netherlands finished third at the 1976 UEFA European Championship and also reached the semi-finals in 1992, 2000 as co-hosts and 2004. Their most recent knockout appearance came in 2008, when they lost to Russia after extra time in the quarter-finals.

• On their last EURO appearance, in 2012, a team coached by Van Marwijk finished bottom of a group including Portugal, Germany and Denmark without a point; that made it four consecutive final tournament defeats.

• The Oranje finished fourth in their UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying group behind the Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey.

• This is the first time the Netherlands have featured in a European Championship or FIFA World Cup since finishing third at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

• The Dutch did, however, reach the final of the first UEFA Nations League in 2019, beating England 3-1 after extra time in the semi-finals only to lose 1-0 to hosts Portugal in the final.

• Ronald Koeman's side finished second behind Germany in UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying Group C, picking up 19 points from their eight matches (W6 D1 L1). Koeman was replaced as coach by Frank de Boer in September 2020.

• Memphis Depay provided eight assists in qualifying, more than any other player. Having scored six himself, he played a direct role in 58% of the Netherlands' 24 goals.

• Having managed ten goals in his first 53 international appearances, Georginio Wijnaldum hit eight in seven qualifying appearances to finish as the Netherlands' top scorer.

• The Netherlands' record in Amsterdam overall is W56 D26 L34. At the Johan Cruijff ArenA, their record is W39 D19 L14, although they have won just seven of the last 19 matches in the stadium (D2 L10). In qualifying for UEFA EURO 2020, the Netherlands lost 3-2 to Germany in Amsterdam but beat Estonia 5-0 there.

EURO facts: Ukraine

• Having never featured in a UEFA European Championship before co-hosting the 2012 edition with Poland, this is Ukraine's third successive appearance in the final tournament.

• Ukraine have lost five of their six EURO matches, the exception a 2-1 defeat of Sweden in their opening UEFA EURO 2012 fixture. Shevchenko, now head coach, scored twice in Kyiv – Ukraine's only EURO finals goals.

• A team coached by Mykhailo Fomenko finished bottom of Group C at UEFA EURO 2016, losing to Germany, Northern Ireland (both 0-2) and Poland (0-1).

• Shevchenko's side finished top of Group B in qualifying for UEFA EURO 2020, picking up 20 points from their eight games – three more than holders Portugal.

• Ukraine remained unbeaten in qualifying, winning six matches and drawing two. They are one of five sides to not lose a game in the UEFA EURO 2020 preliminaries, along with Belgium, Italy – who both won all their fixtures – Spain and Denmark.

• This is the first time Ukraine have qualified for a EURO directly; after co-hosting in 2012, they beat Slovenia in the play-offs to reach the 2016 event.

• This is also Ukraine's first game in Amsterdam, and only their second in the Netherlands after that 2008 reverse in Rotterdam.

Links and trivia

• Have played in the Netherlands:
Oleksandr Zinchenko (PSV Eindhoven 2016/17 loan)

• Have played together:
Marten de Roon & Ruslan Malinovskyi (Atalanta 2019–)
Marco Bizot & Ruslan Malinovskyi (Genk 2016/17)
Luuk de Jong & Oleksandr Zinchenko (PSV Eindhoven 2016/17)
Nathan Aké & Oleksandr Zinchenko (Manchester City 2020–)

• Daley Blind, Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong played 90 minutes at the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Ajax's 3-1 defeat of Dynamo Kyiv in the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg, and in the subsequent goalless draw in Ukraine. Serhiy Sydorchuk, Viktor Tsygankov and Artem Besedin all featured for Dynamo in Amsterdam.

• Steven Berghuis scored past Pyatov in Rotterdam as Feyenoord lost 2-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League group stage; two Marlos goals helped Shakhtar win the return 3-1 in Kharkiv.

• Roman Bezus featured in both Dnipro's matches against Frank de Boer's Ajax in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League round of 16 (1-0 h, 1-2 a aet) as the Ukrainian club went through on away goals on their way to the final.

• Malinovskyi scored twice in Zorya Luhansk's 4-3 loss at Feyenoord in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League play-off second leg.

• Depay's goal helped PSV to a 2-0 win at Chornomorets Odesa in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Mykola Shaparenko scored Dynamo Kyiv's second goal in a 2-0 defeat of AZ Alkmaar in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round on 15 September 2020.

• De Roon was part of the Atalanta side that won 3-0 away to Shakhtar on Matchday 6 of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League, a result that took the Italian side into the round of 16 at the expense of their opponents.

Latest news

Netherlands
• The Netherlands needed a late equaliser from Memphis Depay – his second goal of the game – to earn a 2-2 draw against Scotland in southern Portugal on 2 June, but their second pre-UEFA EURO 2020 friendly brought a 3-0 victory over Georgia in Enschede four days later, Depay scoring again, from the penalty spot, before victory was secured in the second half with first international goals from Wout Weghorst and Ryan Gravenberch.

• Jurriën Timber, 19, made his senior debut for the Oranje against Scotland and also started against Georgia, while the game in Enschede brought a first appearance in the Netherlands goal since November 2016 for his Ajax team-mate, 38-year-old Maarten Stekelenburg.

• Timber, Stekelenburg, Gravenberch, Daley Blind and Davy Klaassen will all be appearing at their home stadium in the group stage of UEFA EURO 2020, having won the Dutch league and cup double with Ajax in 2020/21. Other major trophy winners this year in the Dutch squad are Stefan de Vrij, who won the Italian title with Internazionale, Nathan Aké, a Premier League champion with Manchester City, and ex-Ajax pair Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong, who were domestic cup winners with Juventus and Barcelona respectively.

• Stekelenburg is the only member of the Netherlands UEFA EURO 2020 squad with previous EURO final tournament experience. He made one appearance in 2008 – a 2-0 win against Romania – and was the Oranje's starting goalkeeper in all three of their matches – and defeats – at the 2012 tournament.

• Stekelenburg also kept goal for the Netherlands in all seven of their games at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, including the final. Four years later there were six other members of the Netherlands UEFA EURO 2020 squad present at the finals in Brazil – fellow goalkeeper Tim Krul, defenders Blind, De Vrij and Joël Veltman, midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum and forward Memphis Depay. Veltman was the only one of those five outfield players not to score at the tournament.

• Wijnaldum has started all of the Oranje's last 14 games. The Netherlands captain recently left Liverpool after five seasons to join Paris Saint-Germain.

• Depay has scored seven goals in his last seven internationals, including five in the last three.

• Donny van de Beek was a late withdrawal from the squad through injury. Coach Frank de Boer did not call up a replacement, leaving the Netherlands with 25 players.

Ukraine
• Ukraine registered a fourth successive 1-1 draw in the first of their three pre-UEFA EURO 2020 friendlies, against Bahrain in Kharkiv on 23 May, but were subsequently victorious against both Northern Ireland – 1-0 in Dnipro – and Cyprus – 4-0 in Kharkiv – to make it six games undefeated.

• There were international debuts from the bench for Heorhii Sudakov and Denys Popov against Bahrain, a first international goal for Oleksandr Zubkov to win the game against Northern Ireland, and a double for Andriy Yarmolenko against Cyprus that lifted his all-time tally of international goals to 40 – eight behind Ukraine's record scorer, and current head coach, Andriy Shevchenko.

• Yarmolenko, like captain Andriy Pyatov, is a veteran of the country's two previous EURO final tournament campaigns, the pair having played all six matches in 2012 and 2016, the first three alongside Shevchenko. Only four other UEFA EURO 2020 squad members have survived from the last squad in France – Serhiy Sydorchuk, Taras Stepanenko, Oleksandr Zivchenko and Oleksandr Karavaev.

• Dynamo Kyiv won the Ukrainian league double in 2020/21 and there are ten players from that side in Shevchenko's squad – Sydorchuk, Karavaev, Popov, Georgiy Bushchan, Mykola Shaparenko, Illia Zabarnyi, Viktor Tsygankov, Vitaliy Mykolenko, Artem Besedin and Oleksandr Tymchyk.

• Other 2020/21 domestic league title winners in the Ukraine squad are Ferencváros's Zubkov, Manchester City's Zinchenko and Club Brugge's Eduard Sobol.

• Yarmolenko was one of only three members of Ukraine's UEFA EURO 2020 squad not involved in UEFA club competition in 2020/21 – along with Yevhen Makarenko and Artem Dobnyk. However, his West Ham side have qualified to play UEFA Europa League football in 2021/22 thanks to their sixth-placed finish in the Premier League.