Ukraine 1-0 Poland
A close-range effort from Serhiy Kravchenko on the stroke of half time gave the hosts the win in what was an intense game at the Ukraine Stadium in Lviv, Ukraine...
For all the talk of this match being 'just a friendly', the Euro 2012 co-hosts went at it with surprising intensity right up until the final whistle. Ukraine may feel that they shaded the game on merit, but there were made to sweat towards the end as the chances went end-to-end.Ukraine started the brighter side, with Tymoschuk and Shevchuk coming close early on, but in fact the first real incident came when Kowalczyk had to come on to replace the injured Golanski 13 minutes in.
Neither side quite had the upper hand in these early stages, but eventually Ukraine were to emerge as the stronger side. Poland were mainly restricted to set-pieces for their chances: 20 minutes in, Lewandowski shot a free kick from the edge of the area just wide.
But the Yellows came forward. Ukraine pinpointed Poland's right-back as a weak point, and both Kravchenko and Shevchuk were to make fun runs down this flank only to be let down by their final balls.
After that, though, chances started to come down the right. Just before the half hour mark, first had the finest chance of the match thus far. A whirling free-kick from out on the right eventually broke to him on the edge of the box; the unsighted Boruc only managed to get down to save his low drive at the last second, but he was able to scramble the ball away for the clearance before Ukraine could capitalise.
Poland began to rally somewat for a ten-minute spell, and one felt that a goal could come at either end, but in fact the first belonged to Ukraine. A swift break down the right from Voronin resulted in a cross that found Serhiy Kravchenko completely unmarked at the far post. The Vorskla midfielder found his first header parried by Fabiansky, but he made no mistake from the rebound. Thus ended the first half.
Ukraine boss Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko made two changes at the break, but the game began to break down to some extent immediately after the restart.
Poland, in fact, had apparently recovered, their midfield beginning to look the part slightly more than previously. Still, this faded as quickly as it began.
Nonetheless they were to enjoy a fine run of chances midway through the second half, Guerreiro often at the centreo f them. What was a worry, though, was how exposed they were at the back during these forays forward.
Andrei Shevchenko, a second-half substitute, should have done better when presented with chances both on the counter and from free-kicks, but overall his side were worth their win.
UKRAINE 1-0 POLAND1-0 Kravchenko 44'
Ukraine: Piatov, Yarmash, Mykhalyk, Chyhrynsky, Shevchuk, Tymoschuk (Levchenko 66), Holaido (Mandziuk 90+3), Nazarenko (O. Hai 72), S.Kravchenko (Kalynychenko 63), Voronin (Shevchenko 46'), Milevsky (Homeniuk 58 )
Poland: Fabianski, Kokoszka (Zahorski 46), Golanski (Kowalczyk 13), Zewlakow, Lewandowski, Dudka, Krzynowek, Blaszczykowski (Majewski 60), Murawski (Polczak 46), Smolarek (Guerreiro 46), Jelen (Pawlowski 78)
Share this news articles:
Followed us at Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram for top news football soccer stories everyday.
Click 👉 https://t.me/Obsesbola
