Previous Encounters:
Saudi Arabia and Ukraine had never met before the Germany 2006 World Cup Finals.
The Match:
Ukraine got themselves off to the perfect start in Hamburg, as Andriy Rusol jumped at
Maxim Kalinichenko's corner (which perhaps shouldn't have been given) and stabbed the ball
into the net with his knee.
Andriy Shevchenko then had a header, from another Kalinichenko corner,
saved off the line.
In the 24th minute, Rusol almost scored an own goal as well; at least
Olexandr Shovkovskiy was diving, just in case.
Then, just as it seemed the game had gone to sleep, Serhiy Rebrov
repaid the trainer for including him in the starting eleven (instead of Ruslan Rotan) by
scoring Ukraine's second goal, ten minutes before half-time.
Half-time: (0:2).
Andriy Shevchenko made it three for Ukraine, with a powerful header
straight from the re-start; as Ukraine tried to make up the goal difference they lost to
Spain in the opening game, in case there's a tie on points.
Just after the hour, Shovkovskiy left the ball to run out of play but
substitute Malek Mouath sped in behind him and cut the ball back. Unfortunately, for Saudi
Arabia, no-one else was fresh enough to run into the box.
Then, at the other end, Maxim Kalinichenko's left-foot screamer just
skimmed off the bar.
After two assists, Maxim Kalinichenko added his name to the growing
list of Ukraine goalscorers thanks to an unselfish pass from the captain, Shevchenko; as
both players entered the penalty area.
Saudi Arabia: (Captain Hussein
Sulimani/Sami Al Jaber)
21 Mabrouk Zaid; 2 Ahmed Dokhi, 3 Redha Tukar, 4 Hamad Al Montashari,
13 Hussein Sulimani; 6 Omar Al Ghamdi, 7 Mohammed Ameen, 8 Mohammed
Noor, 14 Saud Khariri, 16 Khaled Aziz; 20 Yasser Al Kahtani.
Substitutions:
55 Mins (Saudi Arabia) - 23 Malek Mouath on for 7 Mohammed Ameen
55 Mins (Saudi Arabia) - 12 Abdulaziz Khathran on for 2 Ahmed Dokhi
71 Mins (Ukraine) - 21 Ruslan Rotan on for 11 Serhiy Rebrov
77 Mins (Saudi Arabia) - 9 Sami Al Jaber on for 8 Mohammed Noor
79 Mins (Ukraine) - 14 Andriy Gusin on for 10 Andriy Voronin
86 Mins (Ukraine) - 15 Artem Milevskiy on for 7 Andriy Shevchenko
6 Yellow
Cards:
22 Mins - Andriy Nesmachniy (Ukraine)
41 Mins - Ahmed Dokhi (Saudi Arabia)
56 Mins - Omar Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)
72 Mins - Saud Khariri (Saudi Arabia)
76 Mins - Maxim Kalinichenko (Ukraine)
88 Mins - Viacheslav Sviderskiy (Ukraine)
