Ukraine beats Saudi Arabia 4-0 in Group H

Monday, June 19, 2006

Ukraine put four goals past Saudi Arabia which almost certainly put the Asian side out of the Fifa World Cup in Hamburg, Monday.

The win was Ukraine's first in the World Cup finals.

Oleg Blokhin's team were aggressive from the start and their first World Cup goal was scored from a corner after just four minutes. Andriy Rusol ran to the near post and met Maxim Kalinichenko's hard spun cross with his knee.

Ukraine, whose slick passes and fast runs frequently pulled the Saudi Arabia defense out of position, could have been four goals up by half time.

In one instance, from another Kalinichenko corner Andriy Shevchenko had a powerful header cleared off the line by Ahmed Dokhi.

Sehiy Rebrov, in acres of space, scored the second from 30 yards; his strong shot dipped across Mabrouk Zaid, who slipped in a vain attempt to reach it.

The second period began as the first had; Ukraine scored early. Kalinchenko provided another beautiful cross which Shevchenko guided toward the far post with his forehead.

Shevchenko surged down left wing and set up the fourth goal on 83 minutes. Into the penalty area, Shevchenko committed the keeper and then gave the perfect ball to Kalinchenko who passed it into the roof of the net.

Though ball possession was equal the telling statistic was the shot total. Ukraine had 19 shots; nine on target. Saudi Arabia had six shots; none on target.

There also were 49 free kicks in the match which might be partly due to the rain over the AOL Arena which made the pitch slipperly. Ukraine committed 25 of the fouls and got three of six yellow cards.

It was not a rigourous test for the East European side but they now had three points which meant a draw in their next game against Tunisia would definitely send them into the round of sixteen if Tunisia did not win against Spain, who also played Monday. The result against Ukraine would almost certainly put Paqueta's Saudi Arabia out of the World Cup.