Andriy Yarmolenko grabbed a goal and an assist as Ukraine beat North Macedonia 2-1 on Thursday in Bucharest to end a run of six consecutive losses at the Euro 2020 and boost their chances of reaching the knockout stages.

North Macedonia, who also lost 3-1 to Austria in their first game, have not rolled over as easily as some thought, but their hopes of reaching the last 16 in their maiden Euros appearance depend on beating the Netherlands in their final Group C game, reports reuters.com.

Andriy Yarmolenko stole the spotlight to keep Ukraine's last-16 hopes alive, while North Macedonia's fate hangs in the balance in Group C.

North Macedonia made the first move in an end-to-end opening, as Ezgjan Alioski's ball over the top fell just out of the reach of Eljif Elmas. Soon after at the opposite end, Stole Dimitrievski was called into action to punch clear Ruslan Malinovskyi's searching delivery.

Under siege, but showing signs of promise, Igor Angelovski's charges began to advance into the yellow half – Elmas's shrewd near-post flick rippling the side netting in their best combination, reports uefa.com.

However, on 29 minutes North Macedonia were finally cracked, as Yarmolenko escaped his marker to squeeze in at the back post from a corner kick, before feeding a sublime first-time pass into the path of Roman Yaremchuk to coolly double their advantage five minutes later.

With nothing to lose, the Lynxes pounced after the restart. Georgiy Bushchan sprung high to touch substitute Aleksandar Trajkovski's effort onto the woodwork, with Goren Pandev brought down in the aftermath. Bushchan guessed the right way to deny Alioski's penalty, though the wing-back reacted quickest to convert the rebound.

Dimitrievski denied Malinovskyi from the penalty spot late on, but for all of North Macedonia's dogged determination, Shevchenko's side proved too much for the EURO debutants.