Slovakia U21 vs Spain U21 Prediction: La Rojita to prevail

The Uefa European Under-21 Championship gets underway on Wednesday as hosts Slovakia U21s take on Spain U21s in Bratislava (17:00). La Rojita are the joint-favourites to go all the way this summer alongside Germany U21s and they are bidding to claim their sixth title, with their last coming in 2019.

Read on for my Slovakia U21 vs Spain U21 predictions, featuring the latest team news and match odds.

Football Odds

Team News

Lubomir Belko is set to feature between the posts for Slovakia, while Jakub Jakubko and Marek Ujlaky are likely to shield the goalkeeper as the two central defenders.

Almeria’s Martin Svidersky will be pushing to start in the middle of the park alongside Mario Sauer and Sebastian Nebyla.

Roman Cerepkai is in contention to lead the line, with the striker looking to add to three goals he has scored for the U21s side already.

Spain could deploy an all-Valencia centre-back pairing of Cesar Tarrega and Cristhian Mosquera, while Marc Pubill and Gerard Martin are set to operate as the two full-backs.

Valencia could have more representation in the starting lineup, with Javi Guerra set to play in midfield and Diego Lopez in contention to line up on the right side of the attack.

Leeds United forward Mateo Joseph should lead the line in Bratislava, having scored seven goals in 10 appearances for La Rojita.

Slovakia U21 vs Spain U21 Odds

Slovakia are winless in their last five fixtures and they are 11/2 to come out on top on Wednesday.

The hosts have drawn one of their past four matches, though, and the stalemate is available at 18/5.

Spain are winless in their three games played in 2025 but they won nine of their 10 qualifiers. They are 2/5 to come away with the three points but you'd find better value in adding both teams to score, which has struck in three of their previous four appearances - at 8/5 (which has an implied probability of 38.5%).

Spain U21 and both teams to score @ 8/5

Champions in 2019 and finalists in 2023, Spain have enjoyed success on this stage in recent years. They were narrowly beaten by England last time and they will want to go one step further this time around.

La Rojita were flawless in qualifying as they went unbeaten across their 10 matches, winning nine of them and they will be eager to rediscover that form in Bratislava as they haven't won a game in 2025 so far in the three friendlies they have played.

They will look to put that in dip in form to rest quickly in Slovakia. The hosts will be looking forward to their host tournament but they are without a win in their past five outings and this does not look good for them against one of the tournament favourites.

Spain should have the quality needed to get their campaign off to a winning start, but I think Slovakia will have their part to play so I would back them to get on the scoresheet.

Mateo Joseph anytime goalscorer @ 9/10

Spain forward Joseph didn't have as fruitful a campaign as he would've liked with Leeds this year as they gained promotion to the Premier League. The 21-year-old  contributed three goals and three assists across 39 appearances in the Championship, of which only 11 were starts.

He is very much being billed as one of their key assets for the future and with the Whites back in the Premier League, they could be tempted to sanction a loan move for the youngster in the summer.

But before any of that, Joseph's focus is on helping Spain U21s reclaim the European Championship title. The striker has a strong goal return for La Rojita, with seven goals in 10 appearances, so he is one of the players to watch over the course of this tournament.

I believe he can have an instant impact in his side's opening fixture against Slovakia and the bookies seem to agree as he is the favourite to score anytime.

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