Ukraine inflicted Spain their first defeat in nearly two years as the 2010 world champions rued a host of missed chances in a Group 4 match in the UEFA Nations League.
Leeds striker Rodrigo spurned two headed chances as Ukraine goalkeeper Georgi Bushchan continually frustrated the former world champions in the stadium where they won Euro 2012.
Spain had 21 shots in total, but Ukraine needed just one to score in Kyiv.
Midfielder Viktor Tsygankov scored the winning goal for his country in the 76th-minute of the match at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex.
2 – Spain 🇪🇸 have failed to score in two of their last three games (0-0 in a friendly vs Portugal 🇵🇹 and 1-0 vs Ukraine 🇺🇦 in the #UEFANationsLeague), after scoring in each of their previous 42 matches (121 goals, 2.9 goals per game). Difficulty. pic.twitter.com/nuYxr05PWc
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 13, 2020
‘Blaming De Gea is wrong’
Spain manager Luis Enrique reacted to the defeat and defended goalkeeper De Gea. “Blaming De Gea is already wrong, it puts a lot on him. If David is blamed for a game like this, turn it off and let’s go.
“The responsibility for each goal lies with the whole team.
“We have made chances to kill them. It was a game of clear control of us, with Adama Traore we have generated chances with his overlap.
“In the end we went into panic mode. I like the attitude of the players; I like what I see.”
Ukraine coach Andriy Shevchenko praised his side for recovering from last week’s embarrassing 7-1 thrashing to France to pull off a shock 1-0 win over Spain.
““I don’t even need to say anything because my players have said everything with their attitude and commitment,” Shevchenko told reporters.
“It’s their victory, they were simply great. The guys have learned their lesson after the France game, they accepted the changes we suggested and fulfilled our plan.
“It was hard to compete with Spain but we fought all the time and we won lots of balls. We wanted to win and we won.” The Ukrainian legend told.
In the other match of the group, Germany came from behind to draw against neighbours Switzerland 3-3 in Cologne.
Chelsea duo Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Serge Gnabry scored for Germany at the RheinEnergie Stadium while Mario Gavranovic scored a brace and Remo Freuler scored once for the Swiss side.
Results
Ukraine – Spain: 1-0
Germany – Switzerland: 3-3
Azerbaijan – Greek Cypriot Adm.: 0-0
Montenegro – Luxembourg: 1-2
Latvia – Malta: 0-1
Faroe Islands – Andorra: 2-0
Liechtenstein – San Marino: 0-0
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