Croatia Earn One Point Against Ukraine

June 9, 2009

Croatia got off to what looked like a promising start as Mladen Petrić put them on the score sheet just 2 minutes in. However, Ukraine answered with an equalizer soon after via Shevchenko. Croatia took a blow in the second half when Oleksiy Gai took the lead for the visitors at the start of the second half, but Luka Modrić rescued them as he and Mario Mandžukić worked some magic to even up the score. Both teams fought until the end creating chance after chance. Croatia’s Luka Modrić struck the far post in a great effort to put his team ahead and Malden Petrić did the same in the dying minutes of the game. Unfortunately, neither side was successful, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw.

After Saturday’s fixtures, the group 6 table stands as follows…

England lead with 18 points
Croatia hold second with 11 points
Belarus come in third with 9 points
Ukraine are right behind with 8 points
Kazakhstan have only gained 3 points
Andorra sit on the bottom with 0 points

Croatia will next face Belarus in August and then England and Belarus once more the following month.

At this point, it may be doubtful that Slaven Bilić’s men will finish first in their group as they had hoped. Although they are quite confident in finishing 2nd and they are more than capable in doing so. It will be a tough fight between the 2nd place finishers for the spots in South Africa, but the Vatreni have enough fire in them to fight until the end. We will see them in 2010.

Jill Guthrie

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