Ukraine go into the hat for play-off draw

Ukraine secured a place in the playoffs for the World Cup finals when Andriy Shevchenko scored to set up a 6-0 thrashing of Andorra…

Ukraine secured a place in the playoffs for the World Cup finals when Andriy Shevchenko scored to set up a 6-0 thrashing of Andorra in this evening’s early kick-off.

England had already qualified for South Africa as Group Six winners and Ukraine sealed second place with 21 points from 10 matches.

They join the Republic of Ireland, France, Russia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the hat for Monday’s draw.

Portugal and Greece will secure their places if they can beat Malta and Luxembourg respectively. Slovakia and Slovenia are still contesting top spot in Group Three with the losers of that battle likely to make it to the play-offs.

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Shevchenko, Oleg Gusev, Yevgen Khacherdi, Yaroslav Rakitskyy, Yevgen Seleznov and Andriy Yarmolenko shared the goals for Ukraine in Andorra La Vella.

The victory maintained their one-point advantage in the group over Croatia, who were 2-1 winners in Kazakhstan.

Former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Shevchenko gave the visitors the lead after 22 minutes, rifling home as the ball bobbled around in the area, but it was the one piece of quality in a poor opening spell.

Gusev doubled their lead on the hour mark, and the resistance from Andorra began to wane when Khacherdi added another nine minutes later.

The visitors took full advantage with Rakitskyy, Seleznov and Yarmolenko all rattling in strikes during a frenetic three-minute spell as the floodgates opened.

And the final whistle could not come quick enough for the 800 fans who had turned up to watch the principality in action.

Ukraine finish the qualifying campaign with six wins from 10 matches, while hapless Andorra failed to pick up a single point, conceding 39 goals.