Friendly first for Ukraine bid

Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin has named a 22-man squad for their opening UEFA EURO 2008™ Group B qualifier against Georgia on 6 September.

CSKA friendly
With the players due to assemble on 30 August, Blokhin plans to arrange a friendly against FC CSKA Kyiv on 2 September. Blokhin has handed another chance to midfielder Olexandr Rykun, while there were also call-ups for fellow midfielder Serhiy Tkachenko and defender Olexandr Kucher. Both impressed in the recent 6-0 friendly win against Azerbaijan.

Ukraine squad
Goalkeepers: Olexandr Shovkovskiy (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Vyacheslav Kernozenko (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk).

Defenders: Andriy Nesmachniy (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Andriy Rusol (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Volodymyr Yezerskiy (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Viacheslav Sviderskiy (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Olexandr Kucher (FC Shakhtar Donetsk).

Midfielders: Serhiy Rebrov (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Andriy Husin (FC Krylya Sovetov Samara), Anatoliy Tymoschuk (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Oleh Gusev (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Maxym Kalinichenko (FC Spartak Moskva), Oleh Shelayev (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Ruslan Rotan (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Serhiy Nazarenko (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Olexandr Rykun (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Serhiy Tkachenko (FC Shakhtar Donetsk).

Forwards: Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea FC), Andriy Vorobey (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Andriy Voronin (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Olexiy Bielik (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Artem Milevskiy (FC Dynamo Kyiv).