Group H Final Games

Group H Final Games

Saudi Arabia 0 : 1 Spain: Spain fielded a team of reserves Friday and still beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 to top Group H at the World Cup...

Ukraine 1 : 0 Tunisia : Ukraine made history at its first World Cup...

Saudi Arabia -Spain Match Report
Coach Luis Aragones told his fringe players to try and earn a spot on the team for the second round and several impressed.
Central defender Juanito Gutierrez headed in Spain's goal from a free-kick by Jose Antonio Reyes in the 36th minute.
Spain won the with a maximum nine points and extended its unbeaten streak under Aragones to 25 matches. It will play its second round game in Hanover on Tuesday against the runner-up from Group G, which contains 1998 champion France and 2002 semifinalist South Korea.
Saudi Arabia exited its fourth consecutive World Cup with only one point from its opening draw with Tunisia.
With Spain already through to the knockout stage after wins against Ukraine and Tunisia, Aragones decided to rest his regular starters against the Saudis and give his backup players a chance. Seven had never played a World Cup match before.

Spain got its goal when Reyes sent a curling free kick from the left and Juanito, outsmarting his marker, connected with a perfectly timed header past goalkeeper Mabrouk Zayed. It was the Real Betis defender's second goal for Spain.
Zayed stopped Spain from taking a bigger lead before halftime, saving a barrage of shots from Reyes, David Albelda, and Joaquin Sanchez.

Spain's all-time leading scorer Raul Gonzalez had a fairly uneventful first half and was replaced by Valencia striker David Villa after the break.
The "Red Fury" nearly found their second goal when Villa, inside the penalty box, dropped the ball back to fullback Antonio Lopez, who angled a dangerous shot to the far post. Zayed tipped the ball to corner.
But Saudi Arabia came out with more ambition in the second half and broke Spain's dominance.

Spanish keeper Santiago Canizares, filling in for Iker Casillas, was tested for the first time 12 minutes into the second half when he saved Hussein Abdul-Ghani's outside shot.
Striker Saad al-Harthi had Saudi Arabia's best chance to equalize when he was set up in the penalty box in the 89th by Mohammed Noor, but his shot sailed over the crossbar.
Spain's top scorer in the tournament, Fernando Torres came on with 25 minutes to go, and managed a few dangerous runs but couldn't get past Zayed.
Spain crushed Ukraine 4-0 in its opener and then rallied to beat Tunisia 3-1.
Winning the group boosted Spain's hopes of shaking off its tag as an international underachiever. Despite being a powerhouse at the club level, Spain has never gotten past a World Cup quarterfinal since finishing fourth in 1950.
Saudi Arabia looked strong in its 2-2 opener against Tunisia, but then slumped 4-0 against Ukraine.
Ukraine - Tunisia Match Report

Andriy Shevchenko scored on a penalty kick in the 70th minute to lead the Eastern Europeans to a 1-0 victory over Tunisia on Friday, making Ukraine the first former-Soviet republic to advance past the tournament's group stage.
Ukraine needed only a draw to advance, barring a freakishly large victory by Saudi Arabia over Spain in the other Group H match. Tunisia needed to win to reach the second round, but had its hopes dented when its only fit striker, Ziad Jaziri, was sent off in the last minute of a scoreless first half with his second yellow card.
Shevchenko scored his second goal of the tournament after going down on light contact as he ran between Tunisia goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel and defender Karim Hagui. He had called for and received a long ball then sprinted toward the goal.
Ukraine joins Ghana as the only two of six newcomers in Germany to reach the second round. The Ukrainians will play their second-round match on Monday in Cologne against the Group G winner, which will be decided later Friday.

Ukraine, which bounced back with two wins after losing its opener 4-0 to Spain, became just the third team since the tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1998 to make it to the second round after losing its first game. Ghana also did it this year and Turkey went all the way to the semifinals after losing its opener in 2002.
Tunisia's best scoring chance came in the 19th minute, when Hamed Namouchi curled a shot in but Ukraine goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy caught it comfortably under his crossbar.
Jaziri received his second yellow of the match for a sliding tackle on Tymoschuk in injury time. Blokhin and several Ukraine players clapped when referee Carlos Amarilla pulled out the yellow card. And as the match went into halftime, Tunisian officials went onto the field to usher their furious players away from Amarilla and his assistants.

Ukraine kept control, especially in the second half, but was not as convincing as it was in its 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on Monday.
Ukraine, which gained its independence in 1991, was the second former-Soviet republic to qualify for the tournament. Russia was knocked out in the group stage in 1994 and 2002.
Ukraine had already proved it was a threat to challenge for the title when it became the first European team to qualify for the final tournament, losing only once in the preliminaries.
Ukraine is home to 1999 Champions League semifinalist Dynamo Kiev, but the country has been slow to make its mark internationally. Many of the key players in the Soviet national team hailed from Ukraine, but with the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, they chose to play for Russia.
Since its independence, Ukraine had its hopes of entering the World Cup dashed twice at the last stage.