World Cup Playoffs: Wales vs. Ukraine Preview, Odds, Prediction

Wales and Ukraine meet in the final game of the European part of the World Cup playoffs. The Dragons will have more than 30,000 roaring fans behind them, while on the other side, Ukraine comes to Cardiff after a win over Scotland on the road, with boosted morale and massive motive. This could be one of those memorable matches between two sides who decided to enter an open exchange and simply see which one is stronger. The stakes are high, we don’t need to tell that. After all, just by securing the ticket to the World Cup, either team would be delighted.

Preview

Wales (+170) lost on Wednesday in Poland, 2-1, but that game wasn’t important for Rob Page’s boys. The Dragons were thinking about their game with Ukraine on Sunday, and we are more than sure that a failure in Wroclaw didn’t leave any notable trace on them.

Now, this was the first meeting after nine straight in which the Welsh side ended up on the losing side. Since losing to Denmark in the round of 16 of the last EURO, Wales was unbeaten, posting four wins and five draws. Not a confident record, but a positive one.

The last five of their events were with both teams scoring and the previous four with 2 or 3 goals, meaning they were with moderate efficiency. This unit is playing physical football, with lots of contact and hard tackles. Also, momentum has great importance for the Dragons.

Ukraine (+175) was fabulous in Scotland, beating the hosts 1-3. Their players showed incredible composure and fantastic fighting mentality despite all the problems they are facing, smashing the rivals who were inferior on the pitch.

It was clear after the first halftime that the Yarmolenko and the boys have more quality than the Scots. That was their 11th event in a row without a defeat; five wins and six draws, with the note that four of the last five were wins. Though, three events were against teams – Monchengladbach, Empoli, and Rijeka.

Just one game in those eleven mentioned was without both teams scoring, and like with Wales, most of them were with a moderate efficiency, meaning two or three goals.

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Both teams will have their strongest squads at disposal.

Head to Head Games

In 2016, these two teams had their last meeting. Ukraine hosted Scotland in Kyiv, and they won with a single goal in that event being scored by their best player, Andriy Yarmolenko. Overall, Scotland was better in that event, but they couldn’t score.

Prediction

Ukraine will be offensive, there is no reason to think otherwise. Meanwhile, once they encounter such an opponent, the Welsh unit accepts that style of play, and they too want to attack. When we add that both defenses aren’t that confident, the best possible pick for this game would be both teams to score, which was often the case once one of these two teams played. The odds on that are marvelous, +105, and this pick has a great value for us.

Pick: Both teams to score +105