Ukraine kept their hopes of round of 16 qualification alive after edging a spirited North Macedonia 2-1 in Group C on Thursday in Bucharest.

Ukraine bounced back from their 3-2 opening defeat to the Netherlands as they held on to beat the tournament debutants.

Andriy Shevchenko’s side ended a run of six successive European Championship defeats to remain in contention in Group C.

Captain Andriy Yarmolenko capitalised on poor defending from a corner after 28 minutes, before the West Ham forward’s pass set up Roman Yaremchuk, who slotted neatly into the bottom corner five minutes later.

Leeds United’s Ezgjan Alioski followed up his own saved penalty to hand a much-improved North Macedonia a second-half lifeline.

But they could not find an equaliser despite goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski saving Ruslan Malinovskiy’s penalty in the closing stages.

Ukraine will meet Austria and North Macedonia face the Netherlands in the final round of Group C games, with both matches taking place on Monday.