MARIBOR, Slovenia – It’s all over. After six competitive tries to qualify for the prestigious quadrennial European soccer championship, Ukraine finally did it on Nov 17 with a 3-1 aggregate score against Slovenia during a home-and-away playoff series.
And the blue and yellows didn’t even need Andriy
Yarmolenko’s virtual empty-netter in extra time. Although his goal equalized 1-1, it was enough for qualification after more than 14 months of qualification play.
Yet
it was Slovenia who opened the score to make it a cracker of a game that got physical and, at times, ugly. Eventually, Slovenia got booked for one red, and four
yellow cards, with Ukraine being flagged for two of the latter.
Slovenia
Captain Bostjan Cesar scored first early in the 11th minute. Valter Birsa whipped
a cross from the right side during which a scramble ensued with Ukrainian goalkeeper
Andriy Pyatov making two saves before the defender headed the ball in.
Boštjan Cesar stoops to head Slovenia into a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute that opened scoring. (UEFA)
In overtime, Slovenia, desperately needing one more goal to
force the game into a penalty shoot out, threw everyone forward for a long throw as time was expiring.
Kevin Kampl lost his footing during the
clearance, allowing three Ukraine players to storm the lone-standing goalkeeper Samir Handanovič. Artem Kravets got
as close as 10 meters before sliding the ball over to his right where
Yarmolenko simply just tapped the ball into the bare net.
Yarmolenko and teammate Yevhen Seleznyov made it 2-0 in the first-leg
on Nov. 14, scoring in each half, respectively.
The overdue
qualification for the soccer-crazed nation brought respite and perhaps erased some of the images
of when Slovenia ended Ukraine’s hopes for Euro 2000 qualification during a
similar playoff, and not so long ago when France denied Ukraine a spot in the
2014 World Cup during a qualification playoff.
Today’s
second header took place 16 years to the day after a 1-1 tie in Kyiv ensured
placement for Slovenia in the 2000 competition. Then as now, according to
European soccer governing body UEFA, “Srečko Katanec was
coach of Slovenia, while his current assistant Aleš Čeh captained the national
team in that tie.”
Ukraine
had beaten France 2-0 at home in the first leg of their 2014 World Cup
qualifier, but lost 3-0 in the away game.
Ukraine’s Yaroslav Rakitskiy and Nejc Pečnik of Slovenia engage in the midfield battle in Maribor, Slovenia. (UEFA)
As a
co-host of Euro 2012 with Poland, Ukraine competed in the previous tournament, and
didn’t advance past the group stage that summer.
France
hosts the month-long tournament next year starting on June 8. The number of
participating national teams increases to 24 instead of 16 as before.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be
reached at [email protected].
