After all is said and done, Kyiv was the high point of the World Cup qualifying campaign and while things didn't really go downhill, they certainly didn't climb much higher. We left clear leaders of the group, heading into the match against the Germans in Bremen, with dreams of a place in France tantalisingly in view. But things didn’t quite work out that way.

Kosovsky decidedly not offside

A 2-0 defeat in Bremen brought the Germans back into it and was followed up with a disastrous 1-1 draw with Armenia and an exceedingly unlucky 0-0 draw against the Germans in Kyiv. Suddenly, having dropped seven points of a possible nine, Ukraine were facing needing two wins against the bottom clubs Albania and Armenia and help from others against the Germans to advance to the playoffs at least! Nervous victories were achieved but the Germans, despite some very scary moments for themselves, managed to win the group. Ukraine advanced to the playoff round by finishing second in their group.

The draw was amongst the most unfavourable possible, a Croatian side laced with grizzled veterans plying their trade in the finest leagues in Europe. The opening leg was a huge disappointment, the side playing possibly as poorly as they had all year in a 2-0 defeat. The return leg in Kyiv still held some promise however and it started in the best way possible with a fourth minute goal from striker Andrij Shevchenko. It got ever better as Vitaly Kosovsky knocked in another rebound after a sensational run by Shevchenko to level the tie on ten minutes, but the referee inexplicably ruled the goal offside. Croatia had been let off the hook through official error and having survived the scare of their lives (in their coaches own words) they settled down some. And then a horrible piece of bad luck saw a deflected shot wrong-foot Oleksander Shovkovskyj and that was all she wrote. Needing to score three more and getting increasingly desperate, the Ukrainian side threw everything into speculative long ball football more reminiscent of Wimbledon or Watford. Having run out of ideas and out of time, it proved to be the Croatians that got to book their French vacations for next summer.

The Final table for Group Nine...

Epilogue

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