Russia and Ukraine to face-off for world football title

Russia looked every bit a world and Paralympic champion side on Friday with an emphatic 6-0 drubbing of the Netherlands.

Defending champions Russia will face European winners Ukraine in the final of the Cerebral Palsy Football 7-a-side World Championships on Sunday (28 June) at St. George’s Park, Great Britain, after both sides won their respective semi-finals on Friday (26 June).

Ukraine were the first to book their place in the final with a thrilling 2-1 win over Brazil. The Rio 2016 hosts had scored 22 goals without reply on their way to the semi-finals, but found themselves behind after just eight minutes.

Against the run of play, Vitality Trushev played Volodymyr Antoniuk in one-on-one with Brazilian keeper Marcos Ferreira. The Ukraine captain made no mistake and calmly slotted the ball in to the bottom right corner for his 12th goal of the tournament.

Brazil continued to be the better side, but Ukraine’s defence held firm, until the 18th minute when Wanderson Silva da Oliveira scored a wonder strike to level the tie. After beating two players, the number 10 bagged his fourth goal of the tournament with a stunning strike from 25 metres into the top corner that left Ukraine’s goalkeeper Konstyantyn Symashko flailing.

The second half was end-to-end with both sides enjoying chances.

A superb team move in the 46th minute led to Ukraine scoring what would eventually be the winner. After taking the ball from Antoniuk from eight metres out, Artem Krasylnykov struck the ball off the inside of the post and into the goal for his fourth of the tournament.

Despite much Brazilian pressure in the final stages, Ukraine held on to progress to Sunday’s final where they will meet Russia, a side they beat en-route to winning last year’s European title.

Russia looked every bit a world and Paralympic champion side on Friday with an emphatic 6-0 drubbing of the Netherlands.

Despite many chances, Russia did not break down the resolute Dutch defence until 26 minutes into the first half when Eduard Ramonov finished off a sublime individual effort on the counter attack.

The London 2012 gold medallists doubled their lead five minutes later thanks to an own goal from the Netherlands’ Joey Mense.

Having taken so long to break the deadlock in the first half, Russia took just 10 minutes to increase their lead in the second period.

Following a good interchange of passing with substitute Alexei Borkin, Dimitrii Pestretsov smashed the ball home to make it 3-0, and effectively end the tie as the Dutch capitulated.

Less than a minute later, captain Ivan Potekhin played in Viacheslav Larionov, who drilled the ball low into the goal for Russia’s fourth.

Potekhin then turned provider to scorer, side footing comfortably into the bottom right hand corner in the 44th minute.

Borkin then completed the rout, Russia’s fourth goal in six minutes, with a deflected effort 13 minutes from time.

Ahead of Sunday’s final and third/fourth playoff matches, the final classification matches will be played on Saturday (27 June) to determine positions 5-15 in the tournament.

Hosts England will meet the Republic of Ireland to determine who finishes fifth, whilst Argentina will meet USA for seventh position.