Voronin in the spotlight

In recent time, Ukrainian football has been dominated by pupils from the Kiev school of Valeriy Lobanovskiy, notably Ballon d'Or winners Oleh Blokhin, Igor Belanov and Andriy Shevchenko. The limelight now belongs to self-taught Andriy Voronin, the Odessa-born striker who left for Germany aged 16 but this summer signed a lucrative deal with Liverpool FC.

Carrying hopes
Voronin played an important part in Ukraine qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and with six games to go in UEFA EURO 2008™ preliminaries, they retain hopes of overhauling France, Italy and Scotland. They trail that trio so good results in the matches against Georgia and the Azzurri are a must. "We must collect a minimum of four points against Georgia and Italy," Voronin told uefa.com. "Only if we do this will our hopes of getting to the finals remain real."

Pressing game
The visit of Italy to Kiev on Wednesday is pivotal, of course, but Voronin's focus is first of all on Georgia. "For starters we need a win in Tbilisi, which will not be easy," the 28-year-old said. "Georgia have a technically-gifted team. Our task is to deprive them of space in midfield. All the Georgians play for strong European clubs and know what to do with the ball, so we can't allow them to get up to speed."

'Draw won't do'
That will mean a maximum effort for Ukraine, despite the big game four days later and the absences of Andriy Vorobey, Andriy Nesmachniy, Taras Mikhalik and possibly Shevchenko. "We won't preserve any energy," Voronin added. "Playing Georgia is always extremely tough for us. We won't win this time without maximum input, there is no doubt about it. And a draw won't do."

Shevchenko absence
Of course, a point was enough to seal a World Cup place last time Ukraine visited Tbilisi thanks to results elsewhere and it was in that historic campaign that Voronin began to take a leadership role. In March 2005, Shevchenko was ruled out of the important visit of Denmark, but the then Bayer 04 Levkerkusen man Voronin stepped up to the plate with the only goal, one of five in his 45-cap career. Now the man nicknamed 'the Vorona' (the Crow) could be in the same position with all-time leading scorer Shevchenko doubtful. "The national team has won on many occasions without Sheva," Voronin said. "Of course it is much easier to win with him, but a strong team cannot depend on one player."

Liverpool boost
It is a big help that Voronin has hit the ground running with three goals for Liverpool despite so much competition for starting places in attack under Rafael Benítez. "I was always confident in myself," he said. "When I signed, Rafa told me that I should be prepared to be rotated. Liverpool have a 23-player squad, and 20 of them are national-team players. Everyone wants to play and everyone knows how to play. But the coach is doing the right thing by giving us rests."

This is an edited version of an article from this week's uefa.com Magazine. To read in full click here.