Men’s Olympic soccer tournament, group stage, Saturday, 27.07.2024 at 18:00
As is usual at U-23 level, there is more scope for surprises at this age group than at senior national team level. And there were plenty of “surprises” on matchday 1 of the Olympic tournament.
The German bookmakers have responded by revising their odds for the second group matchday.
However, according to my Ukraine Morocco betting tip, they have now given the North Africans the role of favorites, which somewhat overestimates their actual performance
The men’s football tournament at the Olympics is characterized by a unique mix of young talent and experienced players, as the teams may consist mainly of U23 players, supplemented by some older stars.
This constellation leads to unpredictable matches, as we have already seen on the first match day. In Group B, neither of the two pre-match favorites were able to win their respective opening games.
By the way: The NEObet new customer bonus is perfect as an introductory offer, as it gives bettors the opportunity to start with additional credit
The Moroccans can be proud of their U-23s, as they managed to beat the “world champions” from Argentina 2:1 on matchday 1.
A little tip: Incidentally, at Betano you wouldn’t have had to look out of the window in hindsight if you had bet on the North Africans to win if the late Argentinian equalizer hadn’t been withdrawn.
This is because the licensed bookmaker automatically counts a win bet as a win if the betting team is ahead by two goals at any point in the match
The Moroccans don’t have the big names in their ranks, but they have shown plenty of heart.
For the game against Ukraine, however, I expect a more cautious approach, as nobody wants to miss the last group game with a yellow card.
Watch out: Six Moroccans were yellow-carded against Argentina, which is why I don’t necessarily expect a further improvement in performance against Ukraine after this energy-sapping outing
Ukraine, for their part, were unable to play to their full potential at this tournament and probably lost their opening game against Iraq in a surprise result!
Mykhailo Mudryk could not be called up because Chelsea insisted that the country’s most talented player take part in preparations for the 2024/25 Premier League season.
National coach Ruslan Rotan has also decided to call up only two older players to his squad: the relatively inexperienced Dmytro Kryskiv and Maksym Talovyerov, even though the latter was in Ukraine’s squad for Euro 2024.
And don’t forget that the Ukrainian U-23 team has been much more affected by the sporting inconveniences of the war than the senior national team.
All players except Maksym Talovyerov (LASK) and Maksym Khlan (Legia Gdansk) play in the domestic league – and mostly for smaller clubs.
Although this squad performed surprisingly well at the Maurice Revello Tournament in June and even won the title in the end, their subsequent performances on the road to Paris were far less convincing.
This mainly refers to the 1:1 and 2:2 draws against Egypt and Paraguay respectively just before the start of the tournament.
However, I’m expecting the fighting Ukrainians to bounce back in this tournament with similar success to the senior national team after their opening defeat at Euro 2024.
It should not be forgotten that although Ukraine lost 2-1 to Iraq, according to the data analysts they should have won 3-1.
The Eastern Europeans clearly won the expected goals duel by 3.02 to 1.05.
The bookmakers provide me with the necessary impetus to go to the betting office not primarily through offers such as the Betano promo code – even if it is very good – but through their recently announced Ukraine Morocco odds.
The events of the first matchday have led to a rethink on the part of the bookmakers, who are now overestimating the North Africans in my eyes!
The Ukraine odds of currently around 3.50 are so desirable in my eyes because they also give risk-averse sports betting fans the additional opportunity to place a lucrative double chance 1X bet
Conclusion: Of course it was impressive what Morocco showed in the opening game against Argentina.
However, the North Africans exhausted themselves and picked up heaps of yellow cards.
Ukraine, on the other hand, won the prestigious Maurice Revello Tournament in the summer and were unlucky to lose their opening game against Iraq.
According to my Ukraine-Morocco betting tip, there is more to the Eastern Europeans than the bookmakers would have you believe.
I therefore predict: Ukraine will not leave the pitch as losers
