Ukraine battle back for draw

Slovakia 1-1 Ukraine

Coaches happy 
Slovakia had taken the lead through Miroslav Karhan's penalty after 61 minutes but Melaschenko popped up six minutes from time to save his side's blushes. By the final whistle, both coaches were satisfied with the point but were disappointed not to have made more of the chances that fell their way.

Shevchenko denied 
Ukraine created the first chance of the match after three minutes. AC Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko tried his luck from 15 metres but found Slovakia goalkeeper Juraj Bucek equal to it. Slovakia then took the initiative and twice went close through Lubos Reiter and Martin Petras on the quarter-hour mark.

Strong finish 
Petras was in fine form and tried his luck again ten minutes later with a long-range drive that Ukraine goalkeeper Dmytro Shutkov did well to save. Shvechenko then had an opening at the other end but contrived to put his shot wide. Slovakia finished the half the stronger but three chances were all spurned, with Karhan the biggest culprit as he missed the target after finding himself unmarked from ten metres.

Changes made 
Both sides made changes at the interval which had an impact on what had been a free-flowing game. Once the new arrivals had found their feet, the game swung in Slovakia's favour. One of the replacements, Jozef Kozlej, went close with a header for Slovakia ten minutes after the restart but the scoreline remained goalless until Kozlej was impeded in the area and Karhan made no mistake with the resulting penalty. That seemed to spark Ukraine into life and Shevchenko came close to levelling 15 minutes from time but his shot fizzed narrowly wide.

Reward at last 
And, having seen Slovakia substitute Marek Mintal miss a good chance to put the hosts 2-0 up, Ukraine were finally rewarded for their endeavours when Melaschenko scored. Again Shevchenko was at the heart of the action, his 30-yard piledriver proving too hot to handle for Bucek and Melachenko was on hand to fire home the rebound from close range.

Coach pleased 
Slovakia coach Ladislav Jurkemik said: "We played well in this match against a quality opponent. We could have won but we missed a lot of good chances,'' he said. His opposite number Leonid Burjak was also reasonably happy. "It was a good match," he said. "We missed a couple of injured players so I am satisfied with our performance today."