Football: Ukraine put up fighting display to stun Spain

KIEV • Ukraine coach Andriy Shevchenko praised his side for brushing aside last week's embarrassing 7-1 thrashing by France to pull off a shock 1-0 win over Spain in the Nations League on Tuesday.

Viktor Tsygankov struck the only goal late in the game to give Ukraine their first-ever victory in seven matches against Spain and end a three-game losing streak in which they were also beaten 4-0 by Spain and 2-1 by Germany.

"I don't even need to say anything because my players have said everything with their attitude and commitment," Shevchenko told reporters.

"It's their victory, they were simply great. The guys have learnt their lesson after the France game, they accepted the changes we suggested and fulfilled our plan.

"It was hard to compete with Spain but we fought all the time and we won lots of balls. We wanted to win and we won."

His country's all-time top scorer and arguably their greatest ever player, Shevchenko oversaw a sensational campaign to qualify for the postponed European Championships.

But his team were heavily depleted for this month's international fixtures due to a spate of positive coronavirus cases, plus injuries.

Ukraine were overwhelmed by world champions France last week but much improved in Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Germany, before toppling Spain in front of 21,000 noisy supporters in Kiev's Olympic Stadium, which was at 30 per cent capacity thanks to Uefa's easing of coronavirus restrictions in certain regions.

Spain goalkeeper David de Gea, criticised for error-prone displays at his club Manchester United, was caught out of position in the lead-up to the goal.

The Spaniards had 21 shots in total to Ukraine's two as Luis Enrique's side lost for the first time since Croatia beat them 3-2 in November 2018.

But the Spain coach refused to blame any individual for the goal.

He said: "Blaming de Gea is already wrong, it puts a lot on him. The responsibility for each goal lies with the whole team.

"We have made chances to kill them. It was a game of clear control of us, with Adama Traore we have generated chances with his overlap.

"In the end we went into panic mode. But I like the attitude of the players, I like what I see."

REUTERS