Match Summary

England Team

Ukraine Team

This match was always going to be a difficult one for Fabio Capello's men, and so it proved, but even though England are still not firing on all cylinders they still carved out a valuable win in their quest for World Cup qualification.

This was a disjointed game all round and these two sides have a history of cancelling each other out.  The first half was nip and tuck with England probing the Ukraine defence and trying to find the necessary guile to get in behind them.  Taras Mykhalyk and Dmytro Chygrynskyy were strong in defence and without Emile Heskey, England missed his pace and power, there was little to unsettle the defenders.  Early on Wayne Rooney put in one good effort with a scissors kick and Steven Gerrard also went close with a shot that flew just wide.  At the other end there was little threat to David James's goal and just before the half hour mark England took the lead.

Frank Lampard's corner found John Terry and the skipper nodded the ball across goal where Peter Crouch volleyed home to keep up his impressive international scoring record.  It was a goal to settle the nerves, or it should have been, but England were their own worst enemies and made several careless errors.  They were lucky when James almost had one of his calamity moments following a shot by Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.  The ball luckily bounced away off his chest when the goalkeeper failed to catch the shot.

Overall the first half was England's but there were signs before the break that Ukraine still had plenty to offer.  Rooney had played well and always looked dangerous, linking with Aaron Lennon in one excellent move that ended with a wayward shot.  Both sides had shown a certain vulnerability in defence and at half-time the match was still evenly poised.

Andriy Varonin had been a disappointment for Ukraine and ten minutes after the break the manager brought on former Chelsea star Andrei Shevchenko as a replacement, and he looked determined to make an impact.  Capello, meanwhile brought on David Beckham, but in the third quarter of the match there were little signs of England extending their lead.  In fact it was Shevchenko who was causing most danger.  He certainly let former colleagues Terry and Ashley Cole know he was around and the Ukrainian was pulled up for a couple of tough challenges.  He also went close with a free-kick after he was fouled by Terry, but England failed to heed the warning.  In the 74^th minute Terry again gave away a free-kick in a dangerous position.  The ball was crossed into the middle, England were not decisive enough and the ball, somewhat unluckily for the home team, struck Glen Johnson and bounced right into the path of Shevchenko who gleefully scored from close range.  The delight on his face was a picture!

The goal was a big blow to England and for a few moments a few of the heads went down in the home ranks.  But Capello is starting to instill a never-say-die attitude again and gradually England clawed their way out of trouble.  Even then though it looked odds on a draw, but with just four minutes to go Beckham put in a quality cross, Gerrard nodded the ball down and captain fantastic Terry swept the ball home, much to the delight of the fans in the big crowd.

If you wanted to be critical then you could find an awful lot wrong with this performance from England.  Gareth Barry was cautioned and very lucky not to be sent off after another foul on Artem Milevsky, a player Barry had already received a booking for fouling.  And the referee might have been more severe on a terrible challenge from Rooney on Oleksandr Aliev.  On another day Rooney could have gone!  But to England's credit, they are now beginning to become very hard to beat, and they can also score goals from various areas of the team.  This augers well for the future group matches.

It was good to hear some good noise from the England supporters, the first time this has happened since the new stadium was built.  The fans certainly played their part in that late winning goal.

Source Notes

BBC Sport
TheFA.com
SkySports.com
FIFA.com
Mike Payne - football historian and contributor
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CG