Angelovski will be aware that his team must get a result here, otherwise they face an early exit from Euro 2020. While Pandev saw his goal ruled out, North Macedonia have failed to test Ukraine barring that and he may want to add some attacking impetus up top. In contrast, Shevchenko will be delighted with his men's first-half efforts.
North Macedonia's fast-paced start had Ukraine looking slightly nervous. Shevchenko's men quickly asserted their dominance, however, as Yarmonlenko poked home from a corner to open the scoring. Yaremchuk then doubled their lead before Pandev saw his cool, left-footed chip ruled out for offside. As the two teams wander down the tunnel at half-time, Ukraine lead this game in Bucharest 2-0.
45' + 1' HALF-TIME: UKRAINE 2-0 NORTH MACEDONIA
45' The fourth official indicates there will be just the one minute of added time as Ukraine patiently work possession around the back.
42' Yaremchuk brings down a long pass before exchanging a one-two with Zinchenko. Alongside Malinovskiy, the Manchester City man and his midfield partner are dominating this game and North Macedonia are struggling to get near to the pair.
40' SAVE! Alioski needlessly messes around outside his own area and Zinchenko dispossesses him before sliding right to Karavaev. The right-back drills a low right-footed effort and, via the help of a deflection, Dimitrievski manages to scramble around and make a low save inside his own six-yard area at the second attempt.
39' NO GOAL! Pandev thinks he has got his side back in the game as he cuts in from the right of goal before lifting a left-footed chip over the incoming Bushchan. A smart finish immediately gets ruled out for offside as the North Macedonian forward had strayed well past the last defender in the build-up to the chance.
38' It's the same duo again that profited against the Netherlands. Yarmolenko adds another assist to his European Championship tally, while Yaremchuk has now scored in three consecutive appearances for Ukraine. In fact, Yarmolenko and Yaremchuk are the first ever duo to both score in both of their side's opening two matches at a single European Championship tournament.
36' Elmas nearly swivels past two tackles inside the Ukraine area as he manages to stay on his feet and chase towards the byline. Unfortunately for the forward, the ball goes out of play and Buschan gets a goal-kick, which he sends long.
33' Yarmalenko has scored (two) or assisted (one) three of Ukraine's five goals at the European Championships. It's also the first time since October 2016 that Yarmolenko has scored in three consecutive games for Ukraine.
31' After scoring the opening goal, Yarmonlenko finds himself on the floor due to a heavy tackle in the middle of the park. The Ukraine physios come on and Shevchenko's captain is quickly back to his feet and ready to carry on.
28' Musliu's poor pass allows Zinchenko to find Yaremchuk through the middle. The forward, rather negatively, opts to play backwards and Ukraine retain possession. Would Shevchenko prefer his forward to be a little braver there and attack the three-man defence in front of him?
27' Zinchenko tries to improvise and chip over the top for Yarmolenko but he overhits his pass and it goes out for a goal-kick. In the build-up, Malinovskiy goes down off the ball from Spirovski's foul, however, the referee plays advantage and the opportunity comes to nothing.
26' Only current Ukraine manager Shevchenko (48) has scored more goals for Ukraine than Andriy Yarmolenko (41), with Yarmolenko looking to score in three consecutive matches for his national side for the first time since October 2016.
24' CHANCE! A mistake from Angelovski's men allows Yarmolenko the chance to drive down the right-hand side before he squares up Musliu to cut back in on his left foot from the right of goal. The Ukraine captain looks for the top left corner, like he did against the Netherlands, but his left-footed strike gets deflected and Dimitrievski manages to parry away a comfortable save.
23' Pandev uses all of his experience as he invites Matvyenko to foul him and the centre-back duly obliges. North Macedonia get a free-kick and, perhaps more importantly, the chance to catch a well-deserved breather.
21' Yaremchuk feeds Karavaev, who makes it to the byline on the right before cutting back to the forward near the penalty spot. Yaremchuk's first touch, however, lets him down and the opportunity goes abegging.
19' Bardhi plays through the legs of Zinchenko before passing to Pandev, who outpaces Yarmolenko on the left-hand touchline. The forward then looks inside but none of his team-mates are there and Zinchenko recovers to regain possession.
17' CLOSE! Nikolov finds a yard of space in the right-hand channel and he arrows a low cross towards the near post. Elmas drifts away from his man and looks to turn a right-footed shot towards the bottom right corner. Unfortunately for Angelovski's men, Elmas' deft touch goes just wide of goal to the right and Bushchan isn't required to make a save.
15' Nikolov drives down the right-hand side before playing to Bardhi, who sees his long-range effort blocked. The loose ball falls back to Nikolov, who completely miscues his effort and his right-footed strike ends up nearer to the corner flag than Buschan's goal.
13' Alioski works it to Bardhi and he finds Nikolov, who from the right flank look to cross towards the near post. His attempted cross gets blocked, however, that passage of play shows North Macedonia are more than capable of working possession about themselves and they're not just going to sit back and defend.
12' Yaremchuk spins past Velkovski and powers towards the right of goal, where he looks to square towards the back post. Remarkably, Ristovski does excellently to recover and produce a last-ditch block which stops what looked to be a certain goal.
11' Ukraine and North Macedonia’s four previous meetings have only produced four goals (3 for Ukraine, 1 for North Macedonia). Despite this, it has been an incredibly open start in Bucharest.
10' WIDE! From the resulting set-piece, Malinovskiy delivers towards the far post, where Yarmolenko uses his strength to get in front of his opposite man. Despite working hard to find space, the Ukraine captain can only poke wide with his left foot at the back post and the chance to test Dimitrievski fades away.
9' SAVE! Malinovskiy wanders over to the right of the area before setting his sights on the bottom right corner with his left foot. Dimitrievski initially appears wrong footed but he does well to get across and tip around the post for a corner.
8' Yarmolenko sees his right-footed strike deflected behind and Ukraine get the first corner of the game. Shaparenko's delivery causes chaos at the near post, however, Elmas eventually manages to clear.
7' Karavaev plays inside and via Malinovskiy, Stepanenko and Zinchenko, the ball finds left-back Mykolenko, who sensibly opts to play backwards as Shevchenko's team remain patient in possession as they look to carve out an opening.
6' Nikolov's touch lets him down as Zinchenko presses him on the right-hand touchline. After North Macedonia's fast-paced start, Ukraine are growing into the game and slowly asserting their dominance on proceedings.
5' Dimitrievski is called upon to punch away Malinovskiy's cross before Karavaev powers a right-footed volley well over the crossbar from around 25 yards out.
4' Malinovskiy catches Ristovski with a high foot and the centre-back wins another free-kick for his team inside their own half. If it wasn't the opening stages of the game, the Ukrainian may have ended up in the book there.
3' Alioski looks over the top for the run of Elmas but the chipped pass skips away from the forward and ends up in the hands of Bushchan. The North Macedonians have started well in Bucharest.
2' Spiroski arrows a smart pass out to the left-hand side to Alioski, who immediately finds Pandev. The forward goes down and wins the first free-kick of the game near the halfway line.
1' With the national anthems over and done with, referee Fernando Rapallini gets the game underway!
Ukraine have beaten North Macedonia in both of their competitive encounters prior to this match (1-0 at home and 2-0 away, in qualifiers for Euro 2016).
Angelovski opts for just the one alteration to the starting line-up that lost against Austria. Up front, Trajkovski makes way and Spirovski replaces him, meaning Elmas will likely occupy a more advanced role against Ukraine today. Apart from that, the starting-11 remains unchanged and left wing-back Alioski needs to be careful as he is one booking away from a suspension at Euro 2020.
Andriy Shevchenko makes two changes to the side that narrowly lost last time out. Oleksandr Zubkov misses out through injury and Shaparenko takes his place, meaning Malinovskiy will move further forward to partner Yaremchuk and Yarmolenko up top. The other change sees Sydorchuk drop to the bench and Stepanenko comes into the midfield for him.
SUBS: Egzon Bejtulai, Ivan Trickovski, Ferhan Hasani, Daniel Avramoski, Aleksandar Trajkovski, Risto Jankov, Darko Churlinov, Marjan Radeski, Kire Ristevski, Tihomir Kostadinov, Milan Ristovski, Damjan Siskovski.
NORTH MACEDONIA (3-4-1-2): Stole Dimitrievski; Stefan Ristovski, Darko Velkoski, Visar Musliu; Ezgjan Alioski, Stefan Spirovski, Arijan Ademi, Boban Nikolov; Enis Bardhi; Goran Pandev, Eljif Elmas.
SUBS: Sergey Krivtsov, Viktor Tsygankov, Artem Dovbyk, Oleksandr Tymchyk, Andriy Eduard Sobol, Anatolii Trubin, Serhiy Sydorchuk, Heorhii Sudakov, Marlos Bonfim, Artem Besedin, Evgeniy Makarenko.
UKRAINE (4-3-3): Georgi Bushchan; Oleksandr Karavaev, Illia Zabarnyi, Mykola Matvyenko, Vitalii Mykolenko; Oleksandr Zinchenko, Taras Stepanenko, Mykola Shaparenko; Andriy Yarmolenko, Ruslan Malinovskiy, Roman Yaremchuk.
Just like Ukraine, North Macedonia also succumbed to late defeat in their opening Group C fixture. A historic Goran Pandev goal had the visitors level, however, two late goals from the Austrians resigned Igor Angelovski’s side to a 3-1 defeat in Bucharest.
Ukraine came out on the wrong end of a five-goal thriller against Netherlands in what was arguably the game of the tournament so far. A 3-2 loss for the hosts will still have encouraged them and they will be looking to collect their first points of Euro 2020 against Euro 2020’s lowest-ranked side today.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Euro 2020 Group C clash between Ukraine and North Macedonia.
