Wednesday 20 June 2012

Ukraine went down fighting to unimpressive England

England had its share of luck in their final encounter against co-hosts Ukraine as they won 1-0. Ukrainians dominated maximum part of the game and showed brilliant field work, but was unlucky to miss out a number of close chances.

For England, it was the return of its star striker Rooney, who went on to score the winner in the 48th minute off the cross of Gerrand.


The co-hosts had an impressive first half as they went close to scoring on numerous occasions. It was only the 7th minute and Garmash missed out the target from a range of 30 meters putting the English team under pressure right from the beginning.

There was another genuine effort from the Ukrainian side in the 22nd minute as Gusev missed the target by inches putting Joe Hart into real worries.

However, just a few minutes later, Rooney missed a close chance, as Gerrand delivered an excellent free kick from the right, which only needed a fine head finish, which the Manchester United striker Rooney failed to provide.

Despite having a rough first half, England managed to take the lead in the 48th minute as unluckily Ukraine missed out marking Rooney and he went on to score of the bouncing ball from Gerrand.

But the highlight of the second half was the controversial denial of the Ukrainian goal in the 63rd minute as Devic hit one past Hart, but was miraculously cleared by Terry, which the co-hosts claimed to be a goal.

Again the 73rd minute Konoplyanka rocketed a powerful strike from the left, which was a real test for Hart as he made a full stretch save, and again unlikely for the co hosts was cleared off.

At the end it was England who was on top owing to the solitary goal by Rooney, but overall it was a Ukrainian game. The co-hosts went down fighting, and the dominance of their play could be made out from the fact that they had 58% of the total ball possession.

England with this win now tops the group and Roy Hodgson certainly seems to be happy by that fact, also he did praise the game of the hosts as he said, "We're very pleased to have won the group. I don't think it was an easy group to win because, as you saw tonight, the host nation, Ukraine, have a lot of good players and they did what they needed to do to put us under pressure."

Oleh Blokhin, the Ukraine coach on the other had was quite pleased with game of the team, but certainly unhappy with the luck as he said, "I want to thank my team as we played a very good game. Even the coach of England said they were luckier than us. I want to thank the whole of Ukraine and all our supporters. We couldn't do what we expected, but I don't feel ashamed of this team." 

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