It was closer than many had expected but, at the sixth attempt, Ukraine at last won a qualifying playoff to reach a major tournament by drawing Slovenia 1-1, defeating the side 3-1 on aggregate Tuesday night. Slovenia battled hard and put Ukraine under significant pressure but the 2-0 defeat in the first leg in Lviv proved decisive. Although it played in the last European Championship as a co-host, this is Ukraine’s first qualification for the tournament.
Although there will be those who look to football as a source of national pride as the conflict goes on in the east of the country, there was little glory about the eventual manner of its progress. Slovenia coach Srecko Katanec raged from his technical area about what he saw as timewasting by Mikhail Fomenko’s side particularly in the closing minutes. As the substitute Artem Kravets had a huge banner wrapped around his head in injury-time, there were flare-ups across the pitch that eventually spilled over into a red card for Miso Brecko once the game restarted as he clattered Yevhen Konoplyanka.
Katanec, whose second spell as national manager has neither been so successful as his first nor generated such a wave of popular feeling, had courted the irritation of the home fans, leaving out Josip Ilicic and Jasmin Kurtic, ostensibly Slovenia’s two most creative players. In a sense, it was a characteristic move. He has always been one of football’s roundheads, preferring discipline and organization to flair, but even his critics, of whom there have been an increasing number, would have been forced to acknowledge that this was a far more dynamic and impressive performance than Slovenia has produced in some time.
The bleach-haired Kevin Kampl was left to take up the creative burden, something he did with great energy if not perhaps huge subtlety. For most of the game, though, it felt as though the key figure was the Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir. He never seems shy to show his cards and both sides gave him plenty of opportunity to do so. This was a tetchy, spiteful game, packed with fouls, flailing arms and grotesque exaggerations. Again and again clusters of players squared up to each other and the thought occurred that the key to Ukraine holding its first leg lead might be whether it could keep 11 men on the pitch.
Given the ease with which Ukraine had won the first leg, there had perhaps been a sense that this would be a formality for the visitors. Within 10 seconds, as Slovenia’s captain Cesar crunched through Yevhen Seleznyov, that notion had vanished. There was aggression and determination from the hosts and, after 11 minutes, it took the lead. Andriy Pyatov got down well to save Roman Bezjak’s header from a vicious delivery and, although Milivoje Novakovic’s follow-up was blocked, Cesar was there to nod the ball over the line.
For all the improvement in Slovenia’s play, though, it was Ukraine that looked the classier side, defensively compact and dangerous on the break, particularly through Konoplyanka. Samir Handanovic, Slovenia’s huge goalkeeper, made a fine save in the opening minutes to keep out a free-kick from the Ukrainian captain and then produced an even better block just before the half hour after a misplaced pass had created an opportunity for Andriy Yarmolenko.
The longer the game went on with the score at 1-0, the more frenetic Slovenia’s attacking became and, consequently, the more frantic their defending. Handanovic denied Koplyanka again early in the second half after an incisive run, and then had the wherewithal to leave his foot in the way of a Vyachelsav Shevchuk shot when he seemed wrong-footed. His best save, though, came with 18 minutes remaining as, diving to his left, he reacted to a bobble on Yarmolenko’s shot and reached up to push it wide.
Ilicic was finally introduced midway through the second half but it was the crossed ball that remained Slovenia’s best chance of a second and, with 16 minutes remaining, Cesar rose unmarked at the back post to meet a left-wing corner only for Pyatov to make a superb left-handed save. Just as Slovenia seemed to be building momentum, though, the game had to pause for perhaps minute after half a dozen flares were throw onto the pitch by home fans behind Pyatov’s goal. Slovenia’s players were clearly furious, Cesar and Kampl beseeching them to stop.
Slovenia never generated another spell of pressure. And then, in the final minute came the coup de grace, Kravets breaking and setting up Yarmolenko for the simplest of goals.
Denmark 2 (3), Sweden 2 (4)
Sweden earned a ticket to the 2016 European Championship after drawing with Denmark 2-2 in the second-leg playoff on Tuesday. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored both to put Sweden 2-0 ahead, and though Denmark's Yussuf Poulsen and Jannik Vestergaard replied in the last 20 minutes, the Swedes advanced 4-3 on aggregate.
After a strong start by the Danes, Ibrahimovic ran free to heel in a flat corner kick in the 20th. A few minutes later, he missed another chance that Kasper Schmeichel saved. Just before the break, Denmark captain Daniel Agger came close to conceding an own goal when stopping Ibrahimovic. Ibrahimovic, who has scored 19 career goals in Euro qualifiers, added a second on a free kick in the 77th.
Sweden won the first leg 2-1 on Saturday in Stockholm.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
