Ukraine Edges Closer to Euro Championship Qualifications With Win Over Bosnia

Ukrainian national soccer team coach Serhiy Rebrov’s men now will face Iceland for a chance to compete in the European championship tournament later this summer after defeating Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-1 on Thursday.

Striker Artem Dovbyk, who plays for Spanish club Girona, sealed the victory with a late goal and paved the way for the team’s final chance to make the tournament, scheduled for June 14 - July 14 in Germany.

The last qualifying matchup, with Iceland, is set for March 26, and the blue-and-yellow will play as nominal hosts in Wroclaw, Poland, due to Russia’s invasion of their own country. The Ukrainians are fighting for a fourth-tier spot in Group E, with Belgium, Slovakia and Romania as the number one, two and three seeds there, respectively.

The reigning champions in the Euros are Italy, who won in a penalty shoot-out against England in 2020 in the finals.

Ukraine is now sitting at 150-1 odds to win it in 2024, with England predicted to win it all at 3-1. Iceland is marked at 500-1, and Rebrov’s team will enter the Polish stadium as the favorites there next week.

“We changed the course of the match in the last 15 minutes,” Ukraine coach Rebrov said after Thursday’s victory. “We expected a very difficult game, the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina changed the structure, played three central defenders. It was such a tough game because the hosts defended very well, so it was difficult to break down that defensive line. It's good that we won.”

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John Moretti

John Moretti is a freelance journalist and author dividing his time between Europe and the United States. He has also spent more than a decade working with companies that protect travelers from health and security emergencies abroad. His academic background is in Eastern European Studies, international public policy and counterterrorism.

Mark Raczkiewycz

Mark was a reporter and editor for the Kyiv Post from 2006 to 2016 and still contributes as a freelancer. The native Chicagoan has bylines with the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Ukrainian Weekly, Irish Times, and Ukraine Business Insight, among other publications. He is a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, a graduate of St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, and fluent in the Ukrainian and Russian languages.