Preview: Ukraine Under-17s vs. Czech Republic Under-17s - prediction, team news, lineups

Ukraine Under-17s will attempt to claim their first points of the European Under-17 Championship when they face Czech Republic Under-17s in Thursday's clash at the Paralimni Stadium.

Meanwhile, Czech Republic are looking to claim three more points after kicking off their campaign with a comfortable win over Cyprus.

Match preview

After negotiating their way through qualifying, Ukraine are making their first appearance at the European Under-17 Championship since featuring in back-to-back tournaments in 2016 and 2017.

Unfortunately for Ukraine, they began their campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Serbia after failing to recover from a poor start.

Serbia's Dusan Makevic scored the game's decisive goal in the second minute to condemn Ukraine to a narrow loss on matchday one.

Having failed to make it out of the group stage in their six previous appearances, Ukraine now have work to do in their next two group games against Czech Republic and Cyprus if they are to reach the knockout rounds for the first time.

Ukraine know that they will be eliminated on matchday two if they lose and Serbia claim at least a point in their match against Cyprus.

In contrast to their opponents, Czech Republic will head into Thursday's fixture in a confident mood after kicking off their campaign with a dominant win over tournament hosts Cyprus on Monday.

Josef Kolarik opened the scoring in the 26th minute, before Marek Naskos and Matyas Nechvatal got on the scoresheet to give their country a comfortable half-time lead.

Ondrej Penxa and Matej Kvacek then grabbed a goal apiece in the second period to wrap up a commanding 5-0 win at the AEK Arena.

Czech Republic have only reached the knockout rounds in one of their previous six appearances at the European Under-17 Championship.

However, they can secure their place in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2006 if they beat Ukraine and Cyprus fail to win in their meeting with Serbia.

Team News

After featuring as half-time substitutes against Serbia, Oleksandr Soroka and Bohdan Redushko are both pushing to start for Ukraine on matchday two.

Artem Stepanov will continue to lead the line, having scored six goals in seven appearances at Under-17 level for his national side.

Meanwhile, Czech Republic boss Jiri Silak could be tempted to select the same lineup that started the dominant win over Cyprus.

If Silak opts for an unchanged XI, Kvacek and Penxa will have to settle for places on the bench despite coming on to score on matchday one.

Ukraine Under-17s possible starting lineup: Makarenko; Sheleketa, Tretiak, Digtyar, Strilchuk; Olychenko, Soroka, Redushko; Bogdanov, Bondar, Stepanov

Czech Republic Under-17s possible starting lineup: Obdrzalek; Beran, Siegl, Micek, Kolisek; Cizek, Naskos; Kolarik, Belzik, Sosna; Nechvatal

We say: Ukraine Under-17s 1-1 Czech Republic Under-17s

Czech Republic may have begun the competition with a comprehensive victory, but with Ukraine set to provide a much tougher test, we think that they will have to settle for a point in Thursday's contest.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.