The final group matches were
concluded today as England laboured to a 1-0 victory over co-hosts Ukraine.
England manager Roy Hodgson had suggested leading into this match that they
would look to control the game but instead, were on the back foot as they faced
relentless waves of Ukrainian forays forward. Ukraine knew a victory would see
them through to the quarterfinals but started the match without their star
striker and talismanic captain Andriy Shevchenko who picked up a knock in their
loss to France.
After serving his 2-match
suspension, England’s own talisman Wayne Rooney returned to the starting
line-up chomping at the bit and duly delivered the winning goal with a simple
nod-in from a yard out in the 48th minute. Captain Steven Gerrard put in his
usual teasing cross which deflected twice, fooling Ukrainian keeper Andriy
Pyatov who really should have done better at his near post to get his foot to
the ball, and ended up at the back post for the onrushing Rooney.
Rooney could have had more than one
goal but having barely played in the last month and a half, it was obvious that
the lad was lacking sharpness. In order for England to stand a chance of making
the semi-finals, he will need to improve along with their wingers James Milner
and Ashley Young who went missing for large parts of the game.
Ukraine however will feel
aggrieved that they were denied an equaliser when the officials deemed that
John Terry had cleared the ball off the goal-line despite replays showing
clearly that the whole ball had in fact crossed the goal-line. It begs to
wonder, what is the point of the goal line official who had a clear view of the
incident?! The sooner goal-line technology is brought in, the better I say. Had
that goal been correctly awarded, who knows how the game might have turned out?
It easily could have been Ukraine in the next round had they gone on to win.
Sadly for Ukrainian fans, veteran
attacking players Shevchenko and Andriy Voronin announced their international retirements
after the match but the future looks good judging by the performances of their next generation,
players like Andriy Yarmolenko, Marko Devic and Artem Milevskiy.
As a result of the win, England
ended up top of Group D and avoided a quarterfinal meeting with Spain, taking
on Italy instead. Their task is made slightly easier with Italy’s defender
Giorgio Chiellini ruled out of Euro 2012 after picking up a hamstring injury in
the match against the Republic of Ireland. France will take on Spain as they
failed to at least match England’s result, going down 2-0 in a disappointing defeat
to an already eliminated Sweden.
The French were second best
throughout, never getting into stride going forward and resorting to long shots
mainly. The Swedes were resolute in defence and dangerous going forward. In the
54th minute, Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic executed an exquisitely timed
scissor-kick volley from just inside the 18-yard box to score a sensational
goal. Probably the best goal of the tournament so far with the ball flying into
French keeper Hugo Lloris’ bottom right-hand corner and leaving him diving at
thin air.
A lethargic France seldom looked
likely to take control of the match, and with it the destiny of Group D, back
to their advantage. Substitute Olivier Giroud should have had an equaliser for
France but he headed a corner over the bar from close range.
Sweden made the score-line pretty
in injury time when substitute Samuel Holmén hammered Andreas Granqvist's cross
against the bar and Sebastian Larsson was on hand to emphatically volley the
rebound into an unguarded net.
Laurent Blanc will be hoping for
a better performance from his men if they are to stand a chance against Spain.
