Miller (3)
McCulloch (11)
McFadden (68)
UKRAINE 1Shevchenko (24)
SCOTLAND kept their Euro 2008 dream well and truly alive with a 3-1 defeat of Ukraine at Hampden.
Goals from Kenny Miller, Lee McCulloch and James McFadden kept them at the top of Group B, with the visitors' only reply coming from Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko.
Italy and France each kept pace with Scotland with shutout victories on Saturday. The Italians defeated Georgia, Scotland's next opponent, 2-0, while France blasted the Faroe Islands 6-0. Scotland are on 24 points, one point behind Italy and two behind France. All three front-runners have two matches remaining with only two advancing from the group.
Alex McLeish's men got off to the perfect start when they took the lead with less than three minutes on the clock. They were awarded a free-kick when Andriy Nesmachny fouled former Hibs star Scott Brown out on the right wing and received a booking for his troubles. He was punished further when James McFadden swung in a brilliant ball to the near post where Miller managed to evade the attentions of Oleksandr Kucher to nip in front of Urkaine keeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy and bullet a header into the back of the net.
The goal sent the Tartan Army into raptures but they were on an even bigger high just eight minutes later when the Scots doubled their advantage, again from a free kick. This time skipper Barry Ferguson took it short to McFadden, who was just a couple of yards away and he stopped it dead. Ferguson ran onto it and lifted the ball high and wide to Lee McCulloch who was out on the left of the box and his right-foot shot curled beautifully into the net beyond a helpless Shovkovskiy.
James McFadden again got on the scoresheet
There was a buzz of anticipation and disbelief around Hampden but Ukraine soon tempered that when they hit back with 24 minutes gone. A poor ball out of defence led to Nesmachny picking up on the left of the Scotland box and swinging a cross into the box that caused all sorts of problems for the home side, Gary Naysmith appearing to handball before heading down and into the path of Andriy Shevchenko who was just on the edge of the six-yard box and free enough of the attentions of Stephen McManus to ram the ball high into the net.
Scotland could have been awarded a penalty kick with ten minutes to go until the break when Rangers defender Alan Hutton charged into the box only to be brought down by the already-booked Nesmachny but referee Pieter Vink waved away the claims.
Hampden erupts after Kenny Miller's early strike
He did the same – this time justifiably – to Ukraine when Shevchenko ran onto a ball by Vorobei only for Gary Naysmith to slide in to take the ball away from his feet.
The Scots had another shout for a spot kick on the stroke of half-time when McFadden played a one-two with Miller and raced into the area only for Oleksandr Kucher to cut him down in his tracks, although he seemed to get the slightest touch on the ball.
Scotland sealed the victory in 68 minutes and it was that man McFadden, who had been the hero of their last two qualifiers, who bagged yet another goal.
It wasn't quite as spectacular as his strikes against Lithuania or France but it was just as vital. Hutton teed him up perfectly after he won possession on the right and sent in a diagonal ball to the Everton frontman's feet and he evaded the attentions of the Ukrainian defender to drill the ball home with his left foot.
Scotland: Gordon, Hutton, Naysmith, McManus, Weir, Ferguson, Pearson, McCulloch, Miller, Brown, McFadden. Subs: Marshall, Robson, Maloney, Boyd, Dailly, Alexander, O’Connor.
Ukraine: Shovkovskiy, Nesmachny, Kucher, Tymoschuk, Yezersky, Shevchenko, Gusev, Voronin, Chigrinskiy, Vorobei, Hladkiy. Subs: Piatov, Shelaiev, Rotan, Milevskiy, Gai, Nazarenko, Hrytsai.
Referee: Peter Vink (Netherlands)
The full article contains 666 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
