Ukraine 2 North Macedonia 1: Yarmolenko and Yaremchuk give Ukrainians first points of Euros but minnows make them sweat
ANDRIY YARMOLENKO kept up his red-hot Euros campaign by scoring one and setting up another to leave North Macedonia on the brink.
The West Ham winger, 31, may have had an underwhelming season in the Premier League, despite his club qualifying for Europe.
But he has stepped up for Ukraine this summer, following up his goal-of-the-tournament contender against the Netherlands with an impressive display here in Bucharest.
Yarmolenko took his tally to 42 goals in 96 caps with a far-post finish just before the half hour.
He then teed up Roman Yaremchuk – who also netted in that 3-2 defeat against the Dutch – to make it 2-0 before half-time.
North Macedonia hit back early in the second half through Leeds’ Ezgjan Alioski turning home a rebound after seeing a penalty saved.
But that was as good as it got for the minnows, who are now set to exit the tournament at the group stage, having lost 3-1 in their opener against Austria.
Ruslan Malinovskyi should have made it more comfortable for Ukraine but he too fluffed his lines from 12 yards late on.
As he approaches a century of caps, Yarmolenko can rightfully consider himself one of the best Ukrainian players of his generation.
Though many feel he never did quite live up to his early potential, which saw him labelled “the next Andriy Shevchenko” when he was coming through at Dynamo Kiev.
Borussia Dortmund were happy to move him on after just one season while he has not pulled up any trees either during his injury-hit three years at the London Stadium.
Yet Irons fans will be encouraged to see him perform so well for his country, where he has been managed by Shevchenko since 2016.
Yarmolenko probably should have scored seconds before he actually did, but saw his effort pushed out for a corner.
Defender Oleksandr Karavaev cleverly flicked on the resulting set-piece at the near post to allow Yarmolenko to fire the ball in at the far.
Five minutes later it was 2-0 with Yaremchuk managing to stay onside to burst onto Yarmolenko’s through-ball and tuck the ball neatly past the keeper.
It continued Gent’s powerful No9’s own impressive tournament.
And with the likes of Arsenal, Wolves, Roma and Lazio all reported to be tracking him, a move later this summer is looking more and more likely.
North Macedonia would not give in though and just before the break veteran Goran Pandev – a Champions League winner with Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan – had the ball in the net with a clever dink.
VAR intervened though with the 37-year-old adjudged to be marginally offside, but it did not deter Igor Angelovski’s side who kept on pushing after the break.
Their perseverance paid off on 57 minutes when Pandev was kicked by Karavaev as he battled for the rebound after Georgiy Bushchan had palmed a shot onto the crossbar.
Alioski saw his effort from 12 yards saved but luckily the ball came straight back to Leeds’ bleach-blond Mr Versatile, who was far more convincing with his follow-up.
Ukraine should have wrapped the win up when VAR spotted a handball in the wall as the North Macedonians defended a free-kick.
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Argentine ref Fernando Rapallini consulted his pitchside monitor and awarded the spot-kick.
But Malinovskyi became the FOURTH player to miss a penalty from the five awarded in this tournament so far as keeper Stole Dimitrievski stood strong.
Shevchenko’s side held on though for a precious three points – thanks to their talismanic skipper Yarmolenko.
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