Group H: Ukraine 4 Saudi Arabia 0 Ukraine revived their hopes of advancing to the World Cup's second round with a crushing 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Group H yesterday.
The performance made amends for their 4-0 defeat to Spain in their opener last week. Goals from Andriy Rusol and Serhiy Rebrov had given a fired-up Ukrainian side a deserved 2-0 lead before Andriy Shevchenko headed home from an inswinging free-kick just a minute after half-time.
Shevchenko set up midfielder Maksim Kalinichenko, the man of the match, for the fourth in the 84th minute. Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin was delighted with the turnaround.
The eastern Europeans dominated throughout, with Blokhin's change to a 3-5-2 formation after the Spanish drubbing offering plenty of width to generate a series of crosses which troubled a nervous Saudi defence.
Saudi Arabia have gone nine matches at World Cup finals since their last victory and now face probable elimination.
Determined to recover their self-respect after being outclassed by Spain, the Ukrainians played with energy and patience on a slippery pitch.
They had already gone close when centre-back Rusol burst on to a Kalinichenko corner to give them their first goal in a World Cup finals after just four minutes, kneeing home from close range.
Saudi keeper Mabrouk Zaid fell victim to the pitch in the 36th minute, slipping as he tried to get across goal to save a dipping long-range drive from Rebrov which made it 2-0. Team captain Shevchenko added the third within a minute of the restart, heading home another well-hit Kalinichenko centre to mark a return to form after a month blighted by injury.
Shevchenko then broke through on the left six minutes from time, slipping the ball across unselfishly for Kalinichenko to round off the victory.
Saudi coach Marcos Paqueta said his team had given their all. "They tried and tried the whole way," he said. "When you give all your effort, you're satisfied with what you have done."
SUBSTITUTES
UKRAINE: Rotan for Rebrov (75), Gusin for Voronin (79), Milevskiy for Shevchenko (85). Subs not used: Yatsenko, Yezerskiy, Byelik, Chigrynskiy, Nazarenko, Pyatov, Shust, Vorobey. Booked: Nesmachniy, Kalinichenko, Sviderskiy.
SAUDI ARABIA: Khathran for Dokhi (55), Mouath for Ameen (55), Al Jaber for Noor (77). Subs not used: Al Anbar, Al Bahri, Al Daeyea, Al Harthi, Al Qadi, Al Temyat, Khojah, Massad. Booked: Dokhi, Al Ghamdi, Khariri.
Referee: Graham Poll (England)
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