Ahead of a potential winner-takes-all tie with Italy next month, Ukraine's penultimate Euro 2024 qualifying Group C showdown comes away to minnows Malta on Tuesday.

Sergiy Rebrov's side overcame North Macedonia 2-0 to remain on the coat-tails of the Azzurri, who pummelled the already-eliminated hosts by four goals to nil at the weekend.

Match preview

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Even with a wealth of injuries and a betting scandal threatening to derail their preparations for October's internationals, Italy were still a class above basement-dwelling Malta on Saturday night, and it took just 22 minutes for the Euro 2020 winners to break the deadlock through a Giacomo Bonaventura spectacular.

After the Fiorentina man became the oldest player to score his first goal for Italy, Domenico Berardi earned his own slice of personal history with a first-ever Azzurri brace, before Davide Frattesi came off the bench to complete a fantastic four for the holders in Bari.

The final nail had already been hammered into Malta's coffin before their unsuccessful sojourn to Italy, and the Group C curtain cannot come down soon enough for Michele Marcolini's men, who are guaranteed to finish fifth in the five-team section owing to six dampening defeats.

Furthermore, since Yannick Yankam managed a late consolation in the Reds' opening-day defeat to North Macedonia, Malta have gone scoreless in each of their last five Group C contests, although the Ta' Qali faithful at least have friendly successes over Luxembourg and Gibraltar to shout about in 2023.

Exhibition victories aside, however, Malta's abysmal losing streak in Euros qualifying now stands at 15 matches since a 2-1 success over the Faroe Islands in March 2019, and the world's 171st-ranked nation remain without a single win on the road at this stage.

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As was the case in Warsaw for their hard-earned draw against the English, the Ukraine supporting cast were in full voice when Sergiy Rebrov's men took to the field against North Macedonia in the Czech Republic, where Shakhtar Donetsk starlet Georgiy Sudakov did his chances of a big-money European move no harm whatsoever.

Amid links with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Juventus, Sudakov's 30th-minute strike took a wicked deflection off Nikola Serafimov and wrong-footed Stole Dimitrievski, who managed to keep his side in the game until a moment of magic in added time, as Oleksandr Karavaev charged down the left wing, spotted the North Macedonia goalkeeper in no man's land and found the back of the net with an outrageous effort from 40 yards.

Rebrov kept his celebrations to a minimum on the touchline, but Saturday's beating was a significant result for the Blue and Yellow, who sit third in the section with a respectable 10 points and are only adrift of Italy on head-to-head results, albeit having played a game more.

While nothing can be decided regarding Ukraine's fate this week, failure to beat Malta would send England through should the Three Lions sink Italy, while they could also eliminate North Macedonia from top-two contention with all three points in Ta' Qali.

Ukraine could also stretch their scoring streak to seven matches on Tuesday while ending a dismal defensive streak on the road - they have shipped at least two goals in their last four Euros qualifiers away from home - but it took a Viktor Tsygankov penalty to get them over the line against Malta four months ago.

Team News

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Malta head coach Marcolini has had very little to celebrate during his side's Group C travails, but the hosts will at least be boosted by the return of captain Steve Borg, who sat out the Italy mauling through suspension.

The 35-year-old centre-back is primed to come in for Ferdinando Apap in the backline, where he ought to be joined by 60-cap international Zach Muscat - one of three players in the squad to ply their trade outside of the Maltese division with Portuguese outfit Farense.

Two more non-local performers - Reims' Teddy Teuma and Notts County's Jodi Jones - were due to represent their nation this month, but both attacking threats had to pull out prior to Saturday's defeat due to injuries.

While Malta will welcome a player back from the naughty step, Ukraine's attacking options have been depleted further after Ruslan Malinovskyi picked up his third booking of the group in the win over North Macedonia - a one-game ban awaits the Genoa man here.

Malinovskyi was only a substitute last time out anyway, so a Ukraine team also without June's match-winner Tsygankov and captain Andriy Yarmolenko ought to line up with an unaltered supporting cast, as Mykhaylo Mudryk, Sudakov and Oleksandr Zubkov line up behind Artem Dovbyk.

Karavaev's sensational late strike in the Czech Republic may give Rebrov food for thought in defence, but the youthful Yukhym Konoplya will not cede his place without a fight.

Malta possible starting lineup:
Bonello; Attard, S. Borg, Muscat, Pepe, Shaw; Kristensen, Guillaumier, Yankam; J. Mbong, Montebello

Ukraine possible starting lineup:
Trubin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matvienko, Mykolenko; Zinchenko, Stepanenko; Zubkov, Sudakov, Mudryk; Dovbyk

We say: Malta 0-3 Ukraine

Asserting their dominance in this fixture has not been Ukraine's forte, as Malta memorably overcame the Blue and Yellow in a 2017 friendly before only losing out to a Tsygankov spot kick in their maiden competitive meeting this year.

However, the Reds' resistance should be futile here, and without the services of Teuma or Jones in the final third, another goalless defeat lies in store as Ukraine boost their top-two hopes again.


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