Spain hope to avoid Ukraine pain in Euro 2016 qualifier

Spain are odds-on at 2/9 with Coral to beat Ukraine in their Euro 2016 qualifier and go clear in second place simultaneously, at least.

However, it won’t be made easy for them. Ukraine attacker, Andriy Yarmolenko, who hit a hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Luxembourg is aiming to add to his tally, and has Spain in his sights.

“It was the first hat-trick of my professional career, so it was very important for me and a nice feeling. When you take three chances, you get a real buzz. I enjoyed that. I hope that in future I’ll get many more hat-tricks,” Yarmolenko said.

He is a fantastic 5/1 chance to score anytime against Vicente del Bosque’s side, and has said the team are preparing for the match the same as any other.

“We prepare in exactly the same way for every opponent,” he continued. “We’ll dedicate an hour to watching them. It was the same for San Marino, we watched four or five of their games, so for Spain we’ll watch even more – definitely not less! We know Spain very well and how difficult it will be against them.”

Spain have recently called up striker Juanmi from Malaga after Diego Costa pulled out of the squad through injury, and the 21-year-old who has scored three in five for his club, is 7/2 to break the deadlock.

It is likely that Alvaro Morata will play a part, and he has been in good form lately for Italian outfit Juventus, scoring in their recent Champions League victory over Borussia Dortmund. He is 4/1 to open the scoring.

Last time out in qualifying, Spain beat Belarus 3-0 with three different scorers; Isco, Sergio Busquets and Pedro Rodriguez, demonstrating their ability to score from around the pitch. The latter is 7/4 to net anytime, with Real Madrid man Isco available at 2/1 in the same market.