www.wehaveadream.co.uk
Triumph against ukraine
| Scotland kept their Group B bandwagon rolling as James McFadden inspired a clinical victory on the counter-attack that ended Ukraine's Euro 2008 hopes |
| Kenny Miller headed Alex McLeish's side ahead after three minutes at Hampden following a McFadden free-kick |
| Seven minutes later, Lee McCulloch curled the ball home from 16 yards after another well-worked free-kick. |
| Andriy Shevchenko blasted a reply before half-time, but McFadden drilled in after 68 minutes to ensure victory. |
|
|
| It meant that the Scots had won six games in a row for the first time since 1949. |
| Yet McLeish had fielded a cautious line-up, with Miller in a lone striker's role, as he sought to keep Scotland top of their group. |
| Fit-again Gary Naysmith replaced Graham Alexander at left-back, while Stephen Pearson was given a central midfield role in the absence of Darren Fletcher and Paul Hartley. |
| Ukraine needed three points to have any hope of qualifying and coach Oleg Blokhin went with four attackers in Shevchenko, Andriy Vorobei, Andriy Voronin and Olexandr Gladkiy. But the visitors found themselves on the back foot - and two down - within the opening 10 minutes. |
| Ukraine had looked calm and assured until Andriy Nesmachny lunged at Scott Brown wide on the right. |
| McFadden whipped the free-kick to the front post and Miller nipped across his marker and goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy to flick the ball home. |
| Hampden erupted again when Ferguson flighted a set-piece to an unmarked McCulloch and the midfielder curled the ball into the far corner of the net. |
| But Shevchenko drew his side back into the game when he latched on to a cross by Nesmachniy that came off Stephen McManus - then Naysmith - and drilled the ball into the roof of the net from close range |
|
Gladkiy headed wide from 12 yards
when found unmarked and McLeish eventually brought
on Christian Dailly for the toiling McCulloch after
60 minutes. That sparked Scotland back into life and
they eased their nerves and clinched the three
points when McFadden collected a through ball from
Hutton and drilled it past Shovkovskiy.
|
|
Scotland: Gordon, Hutton,
Weir, McManus, Naysmith, Brown (Maloney 76),
Ferguson, Pearson, McCulloch (Dailly 60), McFadden
(O'Connor 80), Miller. Subs Not Used: Marshall, Robson, Boyd, Alexander |
