Ukraine

Europe's first qualifiers and from arguably its toughest group at that, Ukraine should not be underestimated despite an obvious reliance of 2004 European Footballer of the Year Andriy Shevchenko. They were fast off the blocks in qualifying despite being matched with European champions Greece, 2002 semi-finalists Turkey and Denmark - all nations placed well above them in FIFA's world rankings - and only truly conceded vital points once their passage to Germany had been assured.

Stubborn defensively, with keeper Aleksandr Shovkovski a formidable presence in goal and 22-year-old Andriy Rusol earning recognition as a determined defender ahead, Ukraine's Achilles heel might, perversely, be their lack of goals. Their crucial victories away in Athens and Istanbul were built on defensive resilience with Shovkovski, the Dynamo Kiev custodian, leaking just seven goals in 12 qualifiers. Still, in addition to Shevchenko, coach Oleh Blokhin has Bayer Leverkusen's Andrey Voronin to call upon upfront as well as Shakhtar Donetsk forward Andriy Vorobey.

Coach: Oleg Blokhin (UKR)
FIFA Ranking: 40

Ukraine Matches

Match #	Date & Time	Group	Teams		Result	Venue
15	Wed 14th Jun 15:00	H	ESP	UKR	4 - 0	Leipzig
32	Mon 19th Jun 18:00	H	KSA	UKR	0 - 4	Hamburg
48	Fri 23rd Jun 16:00	H	UKR	TUN	1 - 0	Berlin
54	Mon 26th Jun 21:00	R2	SUI	UKR	0 - 0 aet 0 - 3 pen	Cologne
58	Fri 30th Jun 21:00	QF	ITA	UKR	3 - 0	Hamburg

Match times shown are local times for Germany (CEST/GMT+0200). Click on match date/time to view match statistics.

Past World Cup performance

First appearance at a World Cup Finals competition

Key Players

Andriy Shevchenko

World Cup 2006 Qualification

Finished top of European Qualifying Group 2 ahead of Turkey, Denmark and Euro 2004 Champions Greece. Ukraine were the first European team to qualify for World Cup 2006 after host nation Germany.

Squad

						Total		World Cup 2006
#	Posn	Name	DOB	Club		Caps	Goals	Pld	Goals	OG	YC	RC
1	GK	Shovkovskiy Oleksandr	02-01-1975	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	74	0	5	0	0	0	0
2	DF	Nesmachniy Andriy	28-02-1979	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	55	0	5	0	0	1	0
3	DF	Iatsenko Oleksandr	24-02-1985	FC Kharkiv	UKR	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	MF	Tymoschuk Anatoliy	30-03-1979	Shakhtar Donetsk	UKR	61	1	5	0	0	1	0
5	DF	Yezerskiy Vladimir	15-11-1976	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	UKR	26	1	1	0	0	1	0
6	DF	Rusol Andriy	16-01-1983	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	UKR	28	2	4	1	0	2	0
7	FW	Shevchenko Andriy	29-09-1976	AC Milan	ITA	70	31	5	2	0	0	0
8	MF	Shelayev Oleg	05-11-1976	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	UKR	25	0	5	0	0	1	0
9	MF	Gusev Oleg	25-04-1983	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	31	1	5	0	0	0	0
10	FW	Voronin Andriy	21-07-1979	Bayer Leverkusen	GER	37	4	4	0	0	0	0
11	MF	Rebrov Serhiy	03-06-1974	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	75	15	4	1	0	0	0
12	GK	Pyatov Andriy	28-06-1984	Vorskla Poltava	UKR	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	DF	Chigrynskiy Dmytro	07-11-1986	Shakhtar Donetsk	UKR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	MF	Gusin Andriy	11-12-1972	CSK VVS Samara	RUS	70	9	5	0	0	0	0
15	FW	Milevskiy Artem	12-01-1985	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	4	0	4	0	0	1	0
16	FW	Vorobey Andriy	29-11-1978	Shakhtar Donetsk	UKR	58	7	4	0	0	0	0
17	DF	Vashchuk Vladislav	02-01-1975	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	62	1	3	0	0	0	1
18	MF	Nazarenko Serhiy	16-02-1980	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	UKR	15	2	0	0	0	0	0
19	MF	Kalinichenko Maksim	26-01-1979	Spartak Moscow	RUS	25	4	4	1	0	2	0
20	FW	Byelik Oleksiy	15-02-1981	Shakhtar Donetsk	UKR	16	4	1	0	0	0	0
21	MF	Rotan Ruslan	29-10-1981	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	23	3	3	0	0	0	0
22	DF	Sviderskiy Vyacheslav	01-01-1979	Arsenal Kyiv	UKR	9	0	3	0	0	3	0
23	GK	Shust Bogdan	04-03-1986	Shakhtar Donetsk	UKR	2	0	0	0	0	0	0