Ukraine blunt Greece ambition in Athens

Ukraine had the most to be pleased about after the first leg of their FIFA World Cup play-off with Greece ended goalless in Athens.

Few chances
Neither side created many chances but the visitors claimed a result that leaves them slight favourites to progress to South Africa next summer. They will need to show more invention in Donetsk on Wednesday, however, as they preferred to wait for openings and attack on the break, while looking increasingly pleased to secure a stalemate. UEFA EURO 2004™ winners Greece were hardly more threatening but came close to grabbing a win when Sotiris Kyrgiakos headed wide in added time.

Tight encounter
In a tight encounter, it took almost 20 minutes for either side to conjure a genuine chance, Ruslan Rotan firing wide from the edge of the area for Ukraine following a defensive mix-up. That was as close as the eastern Europeans went in the opening period and they successfully soaked up any pressure until Fanis Gekas came close to adding to his ten-goal tally in qualifying a minute before the break. Looking to turn in Giorgos Karagounis's free-kick, his header was safely collected low down by Andriy Pyatov.

Mikhalik free-kick
Otto Rehhagel's charges came out brightly after the interval and Pyatov was forced to save again from Georgios Samaras, with Karagounis then needing to be alert to dispossess Artem Milevskiy in a dangerous position at the other end. The visitors wrought the next chance too as Taras Mikhalik sent in a thunderous free-kick that Alexandros Tzorvas turned wide, yet it was Greece who finished on top. Samaras hit a shot over the crossbar with ten minutes remaining and in the last few moments Kyrgiakos nodded off target to cap a frustrating night for the home side.