Monday, June 26, 2006

UKRAINE DEFEATS SWISS, ADVANCES TO QUARTER FINALS



Ukraine won through to a FIFA World Cup™ quarter-final against Italy after beating Switzerland on penalties after a goalless draw in Cologne on Monday, 26 June 2006.
None of Switzerland's three penalty-takers - Marco Streller, Tranquillo Barnetta and Ricardo Cabanas - were able to convert their kicks meaning that despite Andriy Shevchenko's miss for Ukraine, Oleg Blokhin's side won the shoot-out 3-0. Artem Milevskiy, Serhiy Rebrov and Oleg Gusev all put the ball past Pascal Zuberbuehler to leave the Ukrainians looking forward to a tie with Italy in Hamburg on Friday.
Chances were at a premium during the opening 90 minutes of this Round of 16 match, but both teams at least managed to hit the woodwork. Shevchenko's low header bounced off the ground and onto the crossbar from a Maxim Kalinichenko free-kick. Four minutes later, it was Switzerland's turn to go close as Alexander Frei's right-footed free-kick curled on to the crossbar.
In extra time both Johann Vogel and Philipp Degen went close for the Swiss, but as the 120 minutes ended scoreless, penalties were required for the first time in this edition of the FIFA World Cup.