Round of 16
Ukraine 0, Switzerland 0
Ukraine beat goal-shy Switzerland 3-0 on penalties on Monday to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup and send the Swiss home with just a pair of unenviable records.
PHOTO: AP
For the fourth game in a row, the Swiss did not concede a goal but they failed to find the net in 120 minutes and missed all three penalties in the shootout as Ukraine advanced to the last eight on their first World Cup appearance.
Ukraine now take on Italy in Hamburg on Friday for a place in the last four, while Switzerland go home even though they were unbeaten in normal time in their four games.
They are the first team to be eliminated from the World Cup without conceding a goal, while it was the first time in 17 World Cup shootouts that a team has failed to score even a single kick.
PHOTO: EPA
Even Andriy Shevchenko's miss with the first kick of the shootout did not help the Swiss, but they deserved little else after one of the least entertaining matches of the competition to date.
"We have great heart," Shevchenko said. "We suffered a lot and our players made great sacrifices."
"It is great to win and I am very happy for all the people of Ukraine," he said.
Swiss coach Koebi Kuhn was at a loss to explain his team's failure to find the net.
"All my players this morning managed to score from the spot all the time," he said. "It is sad, we are going home, we could have won."
Switzerland were not the only guilty party for Ukraine were equally toothless in attack, with very few clearcut chances for either team.
Shevchenko did hit the bar on 20 minutes with a diving header and Alexander Frei, who scored two goals in the group stages, also struck the crossbar with a well-struck free-kick.
But for long periods, the two goalkeepers must have wondered what their gloves were for as they watched both teams snuff each other out.
Unlucky
Oleg Blokhin's side were unlucky not to win a penalty just before the hour mark when Shevchenko's free-kick clearly struck the forearm of a Swiss defender.
Shevchenko, who will play for Chelsea next season, smashed a left-foot strike just wide on 66 minutes and Andriy Gusin headed narrowly wide from a corner on 73 minutes.
Ukraine were the more attacking side in the last 20 minutes of the match but they could not breach the Swiss defense and the game drifted into extra time.
Both sides lacked the courage to chase the game in extra time and it looked like only a mistake would yield a goal.
Oleksandr Shovkovskyi easily gathered a shot from Swiss captain Johann Vogel but apart from a couple of dangerous crosses, neither goalkeeper having a difficult shot in extra time.
Ukraine went first in the penalty shootout but Shevchenko, who missed from the spot in the Champions League final against Liverpool last year, saw his tame effort saved by Pascal Zuberbuehler.
But the Swiss handed the advantage back immediately when Streller's shot was saved by Shovkovskyi. Artem Milevskiy and Sergiy Rebrov then scored for Ukraine while Tranquillo Barnetta hit the bar and Ricardo Cabanas' shot was saved.
And Gusev kept his nerve to hit the crucial penalty to clinch the win.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS