Ukraine cruise past S. Arabia

Saudi Arabia 0
Ukraine 4

Ukraine revived their hopes of advancing to the World Cup's second round with a crushing 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in World Cup Group H yesterday.

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 for the fourth in the 84th minute.

The eastern Europeans dominated throughout, with coach Oleg Blokhin's change to a 3-5-2 formation after last week's 4-0 drubbing by Spain offering plenty of width to generate a series of crosses which troubled a nervous Saudi defence.

The Saudis showed promise going forward in patches, but created little by the way of clearcut scoring chances.

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 block a dipping long-range drive from Rebrov which made it 2-0.

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.

Linking well with Andriy Voronin up front, the new Chelsea signing could also have scored when his header was cleared off the line by Ahmed Dokhi in the 13th minute before Rebrov blazed the rebound over the bar.

Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin waxed lyrical after his side's thumping win.

"It's a little bit like Cinderella, the pumpkin turned into a beautiful coach and the other animals turned into wonderful horses," Blokhin told reporters.

"That's what happened to us today. We knew it was a decisive match and we turned things around and did a great job."

Striker Andriy Voronin said the victory made amends for their opening-game rout.

"After the 4-0 defeat against Spain, when the way we played was embarrassing, we wanted to show we can play," said Voronin.

"We had a bit of luck as well. Our goal is to survive the group phase. Hopefully we'll go further and then we'll see who we're up against."

Saudi coach Marcos Paqueta said it had been a tough match for his side, who are facing elimination with only one point collected from their two games.

"It was a difficult match," said Paqueta. "We will have to concentrate on the match against Spain. We will get all the players involved and take care of the speed of the Spanish team."

Paqueta said his players gave their all against Ukraine.

"They tried and tried the whole way," he said. "When you give all your effort, you're satisfied with what you have done."

Saudi Arabia: 21-Zaid; 2-Dokhi (12-Al Khathran 55), 13-Sulaimani, 4-Al Montashari, 3-Tukar; 14-Al Khariri, 6-Al Ghamdi, 8-Noor (9-Al Jaber 77), 7-Ameen (23-Al Hawsawi 55), 16-Al Thaker; 20-Al Qahtani.

Ukraine: 1-Shovkovsky; 6-Rusol, 2-Nesmachny, 22-Svidersky; 9-Gusev, 4-Tymoshchyuk, 8-Shelayev, 19-Kalinichenko, 11-Rebrov (21-Rotan 72); 7-Shevchenko (15-Milevsky 86), 10-Voronin (14-Husin 79).

Referee: Graham Poll (England).

Scorers: Rusol 4; Rebrov 36; Shevchenko 46; Kalinichenko 84.

Half-time: 0-2.

Attendance: 50,000.

FIFA man of the match: Kalinichenko.