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On Monday, in the World Cup round of 16 match after a dramatic penalty shootout series, the Ukrainian national team defeated the Swiss team with a score of 3-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament, where they will face the Italian footballers. The winner was determined not by the full-time of the main match or extra time, as the result was still tied at 0-0, so the team advancing to the next step in the championship was only determined after an intense penalty shootout.
Stadium: RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, 45000 spectators Referee: Benito Archundia (Mexico) Switzerland 0 - 0 Ukraine (11m. penalties 0-3)
Switzerland: Zuberbuhler, Djourou (Grichting 33), Magnin, Muller, Philipp Degen, Vogel, Cabanas, Wicky, Barnetta, Yakin (Streller 64), Frei (Lustrinelli 116).
Ukraine: Shovkovskiy, Vashchuk, Nesmachniy, Tymoschuk, Shelayev, Gusev, Gusin, Kalinichenko (Rotan 75), Voronin (Milevskiy 110), Vorobey (Rebrov 93), Shevchenko.
From the very beginning of the match, the Swiss seemed much more confident than their opponents. In the 4th minute of the match, goalkeeper Ricardo Cabanas made the first shot, which was successfully stopped by Ukrainian goalkeeper Aleksandr Shovkovskiy, and Hakan Yakin tried to shoot the rebound, but the attempt was very inaccurate.
A few minutes later, Raphael Wicky dangerously attacked Ukrainian goals, but in this situation, the ball was impressively blocked again by the same A. Shovkovskiy.
Later, the Ukrainians created their first threatening opportunity, after Maxim Kalinichenko's lifted penalty shot, forward Andriy Shevchenko attacked the opponent's goal with a dangerous header, but luckily for the Swiss, the player's shot hit the top goalpost.
In the middle of the half, from about 25 meters, Swiss player Alexander Frei posed a threat to the Ukrainian goal with a very strong and long penalty kick, but the ball hit the goalpost.
Then came another attack from the Ukrainians - Oleg Gusev from the right flank accurately passed the ball to his teammate Andrei Shevchenko, who successfully passed the ball to forward Andriy Voronin in front, whose shot, however, did not pose a greater danger to the Swiss goal.
With just a few minutes left in the first half, Swiss player Hakan Yakin tried a penalty shot towards the goal, but goalkeeper A. Shovkovskiy confidently managed to block the ball with his fists.
At the beginning of the second half, the Ukrainian team did not relax at all and continued to try to attack the opponent's goal. A. Voronin shot dangerously after an accurate pass from O. Gusev from the right flank, but the ball went next to the goal.
Later, Shevchenko also showed his attacking skills - after deceiving the Swiss defender, he tried to shoot at the goal, but his shot was off target.
As the match approached its end, this time Swiss player R. Cabanas decided to test his luck, but his shot was not very dangerous.
The main match ended in a draw of 0-0 and neither of the teams managed to score a goal, so extra time was played.
In the 100th minute of extra time, Swiss captain Johann Vogel decided to test A. Shovkovskiy with an easy shot, but the goalkeeper once again played confidently.
A little later, confusion in the Ukrainian defense, after a lifted corner kick towards the Ukrainian goal by the Swiss, unfortunately ended with the ball hitting the top of the net after Stephan Grichting's header shot.
As the extra time was coming to an end, both teams seemed to be waiting for the penalty shootout, which would determine their fate.
The penalty shootout turned out to be truly tragic for the Swiss, as out of the four penalty shots taken, the Swiss were able to repel only one of Andriy Shevchenko's shots, while all others went into their goal. The goals for the Ukrainians were scored by forward Artem Milevskiy and defenders Sergiy Rebrov and Oleg Gusev. The hero of the match was the Ukrainian goalkeeper A. Shovkovskiy, who blocked two out of three Swiss shots and helped his team advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Match statistics
Switzerland - Ukraine
12 Shots 10 6 Shots on goal 2 24 Fouls 20 5 Corners 6 3 Penalties 1 0 Offsides 1 1 Yellow cards 0 53% Ball possession 45%
