Loading...Ukraine 1-2 Italy: Di Natale the difference
Group B
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Ukraine 1 - 2 Italy, Goals + Highlights
Antonio Di Natale scored twice to power Italy to a 2-1 win over Ukraine in their Euro 2008 Group B qualifier on Wednesday as the world champions stayed on track for next year's finals.
The win moved Italy into second place with 20 points from nine matches, a point behind new leaders Scotland, who upset World Cup runners-up France 1-0 in Paris. The French, on 19 points, dropped from first to third.
Udinese midfielder Di Natale struck either side of the interval, first stunning a 42,000-strong home crowd with a close-range header to put his team ahead in the 40th minute.
Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, undoubtedly the most active player for Ukraine, equalised in the 72nd minute to give the home side some hope.
But it was only a short reprieve for the Euro 2012 co-hosts as Di Natale struck again five minutes later.The Italians did not have a shot on goal until Di Natale's first goal. He also hit over the bar in the 17th minute and Andrea Pirlo's free kick went wide of the post a minute later for their only scoring chances before the break.
At the other end, Shevchenko hit the crossbar with a 25-metre free kick three minutes into the game.
The Ukraine captain then tested Gianluigi Buffon with another long-range blast, this time from 35 metres, that the Italy keeper could only punch away.
Buffon came out on top in another duel with Shevchenko early in the second half, but the former AC Milan forward finally beat the Juventus keeper with a low shot from 12 metres to bring the partisan crowd to their feet.
But the World Cup winners had the last word, with Di Natale beating Olexander Shovkovsky with a rising shot after going one-on-one with the Ukraine keeper.
Italy coach Roberto Donadoni told a news conference: "We had a few difficult moments, especially in the first half, but we stuck with our game plan and it worked.
"But with Scotland beating France tonight the group is still far from being decided. It'll go to the very end."
Donadoni's counterpart, Oleg Blokhin, conceded that Ukraine, who have 13 points from eight games, now have only "one-in-a-million chance" to qualify for the finals.
Blokhin also blamed the Ukraine media for his team's woes.
"You guys kept on saying that I was the lucky coach when we qualified for the (2006) World Cup," he told reporters.
"I think you just put a curse on my team."
It was the fifth time the two teams have met in official international matches, with Italy winning all five, including a 2-0 victory in Rome last October.
Only half of the capacity crowd was allowed into the 84,000-seat Olympic stadium, which is scheduled to host the European Championship final in 2012, because of safety concerns linked to the construction of a nearby shopping centre.
World and European soccer's governing bodies FIFA and UEFA said the centre posed a security risk and limited the attendance.
Source: Soccernet.com
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