Ukraine v Italy
Ukraine (0) v Italy (0)
The walls of pitch one took a pounding as passes went astray early in this scrappy affair between two sets of weary players. The Ukranians found the net early and the next few minutes were spent watching the ball ping-pong around Pitch One until somehow Italy managed to even it up. Bizarrely the rest of the half was graced by three brilliant long-range strikes amid the frenetic attempts to string two passes together. 3-2 Ukraine at half time.
Sloppy defending twice within a minute at the start of the second half saw Ukraine pull away further. The scrappiness was now joined by some biting tackles off the ball as Italian frustration grew. They scored from distance twice to move within a goal, but with little composure evident there was not chance of an elusive fifth to push the match into the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.
Frank Prenesti