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Today, Monday, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine national teams will play their second matches. Both teams surprised the experts in their first matches, so today promises to be a very intriguing match.
Saudi Arabia - Ukraine
Time: 19:00 h (Lithuanian time)
Stadium: AOL Arena, Hamburg
Referee: Poll Graham (England)
Head-to-head meetings
This will be the first clash between these two national teams.
Statistics, facts, forecasts
In the first H group match against Tunisia, Saudi Arabia left a fairly good impression. In that game, the Arabs could have earned three points, but a goal missed in the last minute prevented them from doing so.
The words of Saudi Arabia's goalkeeper Mohammed Ameen after the match are quite telling: "The performance in the second half motivated us to fight as equals against the Ukraine national team."
Meanwhile, the reflections of Ukraine national team coach Oleg Blokhin after the first match tell everything:
"Losing 4-0 is a scandal, we played like the worst team in Europe," said the former Soviet Union national team forward. "We must work on defense; if we fix this, then we can win."
"Nothing is lost yet, there is still a long way to go. The most important thing now is for the players to regain their spirit," he added.
Before the first match, O.Blokhin stated that his team is ready to win the World Cup. So far, the Ukrainians have not substantiated their intentions with actions.
In this match, Ukraine national team will be without defender Vladyslav Vashchuk, who received a red card in the first match.
Saudi Arabia's players are fired up after the first match and will give their all to defeat Ukraine and advance to the next stage. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians need to regain confidence in themselves and demonstrate the same game they showed in the preparation phase. Anything can be expected in this game.
Injured players
It is unclear whether Ukraine's squad will include defender Oleh Husyev, who injured his left knee in the first match against the Spanish team. If needed, Oleh Shelayev would replace one of the more prominent Ukrainian players.
Additionally, Ukraine will be without Andriy Vorobey, who was injured in the first match of the World Cup.
Players, coaches thoughts before the match
Saudi Arabia's coach Marcos Paqueta expects Ukraine to look much more aggressive after the humiliation suffered last week in the match against Spain in the H group match on Monday.
"The most important thing will be to never let the ball reach Shevchenko. It is important to mark him and the other main players," said Paqueta. "I believe my team will improve on its previous performances. We have excellent chances to advance to the next stage and go further than most people expected," he added.
"Every moment in the match against Spain, I tried to regain my former form. I felt better after the match, but I still need more practice," said Ukraine national team forward Andriy Shevchenko, who recently moved to Chelsea in London, in response to questions from the press. "I think each of us understands that we need to start from the beginning."
"Perhaps some of our fans have the impression that we will easily defeat Saudi Arabia. Thinking like that is really wrong. We saw the first match against Tunisia, and their team looked very good," said Oleg Blokhin about their opponents.
Predicted starting lineups:
Saudi Arabia (4-4-2): 21-Mabrouk Zaid; 2-Ahmed Dokhi, 13-Hussein Sulaimani, 6-Omar Al Ghamdi, 4-Hamad Al Montashari; 14-Saud Al Khariri, 8-Mohammed Noor, 18-Nawaf Al Temyat, 16-Khaled Al Thaker; 9-Sami Al Jaber, 20-Yassir Al Qahtani.
Coach: Marcos Paqueta
Ukraine (4-4-2): 1-Oleksander Shovkovsky; 5-Volodimir Yezersky, 6-Andri Rusol, 13-Dmitro Chigrinsky, 2-Andri Nesmachny; 14-Andri Husin, 4-Anatoli Timoshchyuk, 8-Oleg Shelayev, 21-Ruslan Rotan; 7-Andriy Shevchenko, 10-Andri Voronin.
Coach: Oleg Blokhin
