Ukraine begin EURO build-up with emphatic win

Ukraine got their UEFA EURO 2012 preparations off to an ideal start as the co-hosts registered a 4-0 win against Estonia in Austria.

Andriy Yarmolenko got proceedings under way early in Kufstein before Oleh Gusev's penalty doubled the lead and Andriy Voronin added a further goal before the break. It was one-way traffic as Artem Milevskiy rounded off the scoring in the second half to boost home hopes ahead of EURO.

Yarmolenko impressed during a controlled first-half display and the midfielder smashed home his fourth goal in six matches for his country following Serhiy Nazarenko's clever cut-back in the ninth minute. The FC Dynamo Kyiv man then won the penalty that enabled his club colleague Gusev to double the margin by easing the spot kick beyond Mihkel Aksalu.

On the eve of naming his final 23-man squad, Oleh Blokhin gained a positive selection headache from his attacking players and the starting duo of Marko Dević and Voronin combined to perfection four minutes before the interval for the latter to nod home from close range.

Andriy Shevchenko stepped off the bench for the second half and made a rapid impact by teeing up Milevskiy to put the result beyond doubt from eight metres. Yevhen Seleznyov twice went close to adding gloss to the scoreline, only to miscue on both occasions.

Of added advantage to Blokhin was the dependable versatility of his captain Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, who featured throughout just nine days after playing in the UEFA Champions League final for FC Bayern München. Such was Ukraine's control of the midfield, that Andriy Pyatov remained relatively unemployed; Estonia substitute Tarmo Kink at least forced the FC Shakhtar Donetsk goalkeeper to be at full stretch but his drive flashed wide of the post.

Ukraine will look to build on their six-match unbeaten run when they take on Austria in their next friendly on 1 June before opening their Group D campaign against Sweden in Kyiv ten days later.