Ukraine crush Saudi Arabia 4-0

Ukraine's hopes of reaching the second round came alive with a crushing 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Group H on Monday.

Goals from Andriy Rusol and Serhiy Rebrov had given a fired-up Ukrainian side a deserved 2-0 lead before Andriy Shevchenko headed home from an inswinging free kick just a minute after halftime. Shevchenko set up midfielder Maksim Kalinichenko for the fourth in the 84th minute.

Ukraine dominated throughout, helped by a change in Oleg Blokhin's formation of 3-5-2 after losing 4-0 to Spain in the first match. It gives them plenty of width to generate a series of crosses which troubled a nervous Saudi defence. The Saudis looked promising in some of their moves but they did not really threaten the Ukrainian goalkeeper.

The Ukrainians were determined to recover some of their pride after being outclassed by Spain, and they played an energetic and tactical game on a slippery pitch. The reunion of Rebrov and Shevchenko has once again bore fruit for Ukraine.

Soccer Pundit hopes to see this old partnership in action (unless the coach has better ideas), as the previous match has shown that Shevchenko playing as a lone striker is ineffective and the passes to him are easily repelled; having Rebrov on provides Ukraine with more firepower upfront and draws the defenders away to give Shev more time on the ball.