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Overnight recap - 28 May
Ukraine have dominated fellow World Cup qualifiers Costa Rica overnight in a 4-0 thrashing without the help of Andriy Shevchenko.
Serhiy Nazarenko opened the scoring for the World Cup debutants on 29 minutes after Costa Rican keeper Wardy Alfaro spilled the ball. Five minutes later Andriy Vorobey burst through the defence to slot home a second while on 40 minutes Maxim Kalinichenko made it 3-0.
Oleksiy Byelik found his way past a hapless Costa Rican defence on 55 minutes to seal the victory.
Despite the result, Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin expressed his concerns about where Ukraine are still to improve. "What really counts is discipline on defence, team work and the ability to play an all-round game. We need to work on all those aspects of the game." (fifaworldcup.com)
Costa Rica meanwhile have a mountain of work to do before facing off with germany in the opening match of the World Cup.
Croatia have clawed back a 2-2 draw with Iran thanks to a last minute penalty. Victory would have been quite a confidence boost for Iran as they head into the World Cup as major underdogs in their group.
They can be happy with their start however as Ali Karimi drove a mis-hit clearance into the back of the Croatian net (21 min). However their lead was short lived as Rangers marksman Dado Prso fired home the equiliser on 32 minutes.
A number of half time changes created some disjointed play in the second half as both coaches looked to test new formations. It was Croatian substitute, defender Mario Tokic, that created the second Iran goal when his poor clearance landed for Arash Borhani who scored on 82 minutes.
Six minutes into stoppage time and the result seemed inevitable until Iran keeper Ebrahim Mirzapour clipped Ivica Olic on his run through. Marko Babic made no mistake from the spot to level 2-2.
In the only other match overnight, Macedonia FYR defeated Ecuador in one of the more shocking results. Ecuador, who will face Germany, Poland and Costa Rica in Group A, failed to hold onto their early lead as they went down 2-1 to the non-qualifiers.
Carlos Tenorio created a superb solo effort to give Ecuador the lead on 25 minutes. However three minutes later Goran Maznov found a loose ball and poked home an equiliser.
Sadly Tenorio had to be strechered off midway through the second half with a leg injury and is now in some doubt for thir opening match against Poland. Macedonia however took advantage when Aco Stojkov was felled in the area and defender Igor Mitreski scored from the spot (73 min).
With this their last match before the World Cup, Ecuador would have hoped to take in a good result against seemingly weaker opposition and quell some calls of Ecuador's poor travelling form. However this form away from home still lingers as they go to Germany.
29 May, 2006 |
