Ukraine U-21 team Played with Scotland and Sweden

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Ukrainian U-21 team played two matches during the 5th anr the 6th of February within the borders of representative tournament Vaio do Tejo which took place in Portugal. On February 5, Ukrainians were won by Sweden and on the next day they played the draw with their coevals who represented Scotland in this tournament.

Ukraine (U21) − Sweden (U21) − 0:1

Goal: Toyvonen (75).

Toivonen winner

Despite losing a number of players to a stomach bug, Sweden were still able to defeat Ukraine 1-0 to advance to the final of the 2008 Vale do Tejo tournament in Portugal. Malmö FF striker Ola Toivonen got the only goal to the delight of coach Jörgen Lennartsson, who had been forced to cancel training on Monday because of illness linked to a hamburger dinner his players had eaten. «Considering the problems we've had I'm really pleased», said Lennartsson, who works in tandem with Tommy Söderberg. «We faced a fairly good side and considering it was our first game of the season we played well.»

New faces

Walid Atta, Erik Israelsson and Sebastian Rajalakso all made their Under-21 debuts for Sweden, who started well with Rawez Lawan and Ajsel Kujovic both coming close. The best chance of the first-half, however, fell to Ukraine's Volodymyr Lysenko whose header passed narrowly over the bar. Ukraine made eight substitutions after the break which allowed Sweden to gain the upper hand. Lawan and Kujovic had further chances before Dmytro Lopa hit the bar with a free-kick for Ukraine. Hammarby's Sebastian Castro-Tello did the same for Sweden soon after then Toivonen finally broke the deadlock with a perfectly flighted free-kick 13 minutes from time. Sweden meet hosts Portugal, who defeated Scotland 2-1, in the final.

Ukraine (U21) − Scotland (U21) − 2:2

Goal: 1:0 Stepanenko (42), 2:0 Lyopa (50), 2:1 Arsild (64), 2:2 Konroy (70).

Acquaintance during the game

The level of understanding between Ukrainian players was lower than of their opponents. That was, because most of Ukrainians got acquainted only few days before the match. It was the reason for an advantage of Scotland players at the beginning of the match. But then Ukrainians took the control upon the match. Before the break blue-yellow team opened the score. Maksym Pashaev and Volodymyr Lysenko organized a good attack and Taras Stepanenko effectively finished the combination. In the second half of the game Dmytro Lyopa won a duel with goalkeeper and scored once more.

Unlucky six minutes

In spite of Scotland team was two goals behind opponents they managed to make the draw. During six minutes they scored twice. At first Scott Arsild was lucky to put one back and then Rayan Konroy scored the second one. Until the very end of the match Ukrainians didn’t have the opportunity to score and win this match.

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