Ukraine versus France – International Friendly Preview
With France looking to qualify for the European Championship in 2012 in Ukraine and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Poland-c2983 and their hosts on Monday, 6th of June 2011 aiming to win the EURO 2012 competition on their home turf, Ukraine and France will
battle it out in Donetsk on Monday evening. Thus let’s take a look at how both the teams might fare against each other...
Ukraine
Hosts of the 2012 European Championships are currently struggling to go through some competitive games in order to prepare for the tournament that is supposed to take place on their home turf. Ukrainian national team already qualified
for the European Championships by the virtue of the fact that they are indeed hosting the competition in question.
Nonetheless, Andriy Shevchenko and co. will look to get some match practice together as a unit against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 on Monday evening. Oleg Blokhin, the Ukrainian national team manager has already confirmed that his team will aim to
win the EURO 2012 competition on their home turf; if they are to achieve that feat then they will have to begin by getting a result against France in this friendly encounter.
France
After their shambolic display against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Belarus-c2849 on the weekend, Les Blues need to get their act together if they intend to make it to the European Championships in 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. Laurent Blanc’s men are still recovering
from their disappointing display at the FIFA 2010 World Cup but with new horizon’s in front of them, the men in Blue are expected to do well against Ukraine in Donetsk. Blanc will probably use his team’s friendly matchup against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032 as a chance to experiment
with different players.
The French national team fans can take heart from the fact that France are unbeaten in their last two meetings with Ukraine. Both of these meetings came in 2007 when France were qualifying for the 2008 European Championships. The
last meeting between both the sides ended in a 2-0 win for the French as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nicolas-Anelka-c27786 and Franck Ribery netted a goal each.
Team News
It is expected that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Patrice-Evra-c29231 will start as France’s left back against Ukraine after Eric Abidal disappointed with his own goal against Belarus on Friday. The French national team usually play with a 4-2-3-1 formation and Blanc
has retained this setup in most of the matches that he has managed so far with the Les Blues.
Expected French national team line up:
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Karim-Benzema-c20350
On the other hand, Ukraine are set to depend on their veteran goal scorer Andriy Shevchenko to score against France. Oleg Blokhin is set to field a team which will be without the services of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Yarmolenko-c6021 who is absent due
to his participation in the Under-21 European Championships.
Expected Ukrainian national team line up:
Pyatov, Kucher, Khacheridi, Mandzyuk, Shevchuk, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Shevchenko-c6014
Prediction
Les Blues will be favourites to win in Donetsk against Ukraine but such a task is easier said than done. Ukraine are no pushovers and their pedigree as a European outfit is well acknowledged. It will be a tough affair thus a draw
is expected in the end. Ukraine 1 – 1 France.
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