The western borders of Russia spent a night from Monday to Tuesday uneasy: Ukrainian neighbors walked until the morning. However, the reason for the night brawl was more than respectful: the Ukrainian team achieved the highest achievement in the history of all post-Soviet football - it broke through among the eight best teams on the planet. In the 1/8 finals, the Swiss national team turned into stubborn doormans: bending the whole match under the attacks of the opponent, they brought the matter to a penalty shootout, but still missed Oleg Blokhin's team in the quarterfinals.
“Why are you taking Shevchenko now? He signed a contract with Chelsea and therefore takes his legs off any junction. Do you know what we called him after group matches? The most expensive real estate in Ukraine! Voronin can do much less than Sheva, but beats - uh! - like a lion. " Andrei, a 30-year-old fan from Kiev, sat on the steps in front of the famous Cologne Cathedral and, drinking a sandwich with beer, relayed the discontent that Ukrainian football players aroused in their homeland after the group tournament. Six hours later, his indignation will be retouched: Voronin will play the match very pale, and Shevchenko will hold his best match in this championship, without scoring, however, the first penalty shoot-out.
"Where? Where did Totti come from?" - An hour after the end of the match, Italian journalists ran around the mixed zone and pulled the sleeves of their Eastern European colleagues. Totti is Artyom Milevsky, the most stylish participant in the Ukrainian triumph. Carrying out his kick from the “point”, the young striker caught the ball and mockingly threw it into the goal - exactly the same as Francesco Totti did in the Euro 2000 semifinal against the Netherlands. “Well, this is not the first time I've put such a penalty,” Milevsky said, scratching the back of his head. “He scored exactly the same in the recent European Youth Championship in the first match. It's funny that we will play the next meeting with Italy: she’s mine at all major tournaments was a favorite team. "
Fresh Milevsky’s actions along with Shovkovsky’s bulletproof game are perhaps the main elements of the show, for which the Ukrainians were honored in the match with Switzerland. The best indicator of how empty this game was for a neutral observer was the behavior of the stands. German fans in the stadium were the majority. At first they patiently put up with an overly cautious game of teams, then in the most dreary parts of the match they chanted the name of Lukasz Podolski (the young star of the German national team who moved from the local “Cologne” to “Bavaria” this summer), and at the end of the second half they started whistling furiously . They obviously did not need such football.
The match participants did not succeed in changing the mood of the stands. It was especially difficult for the Ukrainians: before the 1/8 finals, only a small part of the fans endured in Germany this week. Not only that, some of those who still remained in the championship, before the match, faced with the problem of buying tickets. As a result, a thousand Slavic fans, most of whom were concentrated in one of the corners of the stadium, looked very dreary. Even the Russian flag, proudly wailing among the yellow-blue crowd, did not save the situation.
After a historic victory, the Ukrainians parted with the locker room very slowly. Defender Nesmachny, the whole match being beaten on his left flank, went to the bus with an elastic bandage wound on his knee. Voronin, passing by Shovkovsky, shouted to the whole of Ivanovo: "Sasha, you are the best!" Shevchenko ran faster than a steam locomotive, kissing on the go with Italian journalists and giving noticeable enthusiasm for an interview in the English language that he is currently studying. The hardest one was Gusin, who played an excellent match in the center of defense, holding a small Ukrainian flag behind his back. “You yourself saw how tired we are: after the decisive penalty I collapsed in the central circle and could not join the glee,” whispered the defender of Samara “Wings of the Soviets.” “The next game, of course, will be the same. Italy is an uncomfortable opponent, who plays well in defense. You know how we play. So do not expect a spectacular match. "
He, in general, is not expected. After Blokhin’s team reached the quarter finals, it seems that everyone understood why the thesis “the game is forgotten, but the result remains” belongs to Valery Lobanovsky, the great Ukrainian coach.