Ukraine bounced back from their opening defeat at Euro 2020 as they held on to beat tournament debutants North Macedonia in Bucharest. Andriy Yarmolenko capitalised on poor defending from a corner after 28 minutes before setting up Roman Yaremchuk.
Leeds United’s Ezgjan Alioski followed up his own saved penalty to hand a much-improved North Macedonia a second-half lifeline.
Ukraine was one defeat away from recording the longest losing streak in the opposition’s set of experiences and, having been the primary side to be killed at Euro 2016, they made the most of their initial predominance stay away from a comparable destiny in an enthusiastic challenge.
Dimitrievski dismissed a savage shot from Malinovskiy and Stefan Ristovski produce a fine sliding test to stop Yaremchuk before Yarmolenko’s merited forward leap.
Napoli forward Eljif Elmas, 21, hit the side-netting from short proximity with an uncommon first-half possibility for the Macedonians, while veteran striker Goran Pandev had an all around taken objective precluded for offside before half-time.
Igor Angelovski’s side, the most minimal positioned at Euro 2020, mobilized after the restart and Arijan Ademi constrained a fine save from Georgiy Bushchan before Oleksandr Karavaev surrendered Alioski’s spot-kick for fouling Pandev.
After Viktor Tsygankov had rejected a superb possibility, Ukraine was given another chance to seal triumph when Daniel Avramovski was punished for a handball in the crate – however Dimitrievski’s fine saves kept the game yet to be determined.
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