'Fourmidable' Ukraine bounce back
Monday, 19 Jun 2006 23:10
'Fourmidable' Ukraine bounce back
Ukraine bounced back from their heavy defeat to Spain in their opening World Cup game with a 4-0 hammering of Saudi Arabia.
Marcos Paqueta's men began nervously and were poor throughout, torn apart by goals from Andriy Rusol, Serhiy Rebrov, Andriy Shevchenko and Maxim Kalinichenko.
Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said his side lacked fight against Spain and if he was looking for a response then he got it inside four minutes.
The Saudi goalkeeper Mabrouk Zaid gave away a corner and the delivery from the right was met at the near post by Rusol, heading the ball through Zaid's legs.
Shevchenko nearly made it two from an almost-identical corner routine but the ball was blocked on the line by Ahmed Dokhi.
His former Dynamo Kiev strike-partner Rebrov did double the advantage nine minutes before the break as he picked up the ball and from 35 yards smashed an unstoppable drive into the corner.
It was three minutes into the second-half as Kalinichenko swung in a free-kick from the left and Shevchenko was gifted with an easy header from six yards.
Kalinichenko almost made it 4-0 when he drilled a shot from the left side of the penalty area and it clipped the top of the bar.
However, he wasn't to be denied a deserved goal as with six minutes remaining Shevchenko broke down the left and pulled the ball across the area for the unmarked Kalinichenko to sweep the ball home.