Wayne Rooney scored the winning goal on his return to fire England to a 1-0 victory over Ukraine in Donetsk and into into the last eight of Euro 2012 as Group D winners.
The Manchester United striker was restored to the starting lineup by Roy Hodgson after completing his two-match ban and vindicated his managers decision after nodding home Steven Gerrard’s cross early in the second half to give England their second win in a row and set up a quarter final meeting with Italy on Saturday.
France’s shock defeat at Sweden meant England’s win saw them top the group and avoid a difficult with defending champions Spain in the next round. Hodgson’s men rode their luck at times as the co-hosts fought to stay in the tournament and will feel aggrieved that they weren’t awarded a clear goal after Marko Devic’s effort was deflected under Joe Hart and cleared off the line by John Terry despite ball appearing to have crossed.
In fact it was Ukraine who started on the front foot penning England back from the kick off but couldn’t manage to break down a resilient back four that has been transformed Hodgson’s short spell in charge. On the odd occasion they were breached Hart was on hand to repel anything thrown in his direction.
Devic was proving to be the main threat for Oleg Blokhin’s men seeing a shot blocked by Scott Parker and starting a move that ended with Andriy Yarmolenko cutting inside and bringing a low save out of Hart. Oleh Gusev then shot narrowly over the bar before Yarmolenko tricked his way into the penalty area only to see his progress halted by Joleon Lescott.
On a rare England attack Rooney wasted a glorious chance to break the deadlock heading wide after intelligently peeling away from his marker to meet Ashley Young’s teasing delivery from the left. But three minutes after the break he atoned for his miss. Steven Gerrard whipped in a cross that Andriy Pyatov failed to gather giving Rooney the simplest of tasks to nod home from a yard out.
Ukraine upped the ante in search of an equaliser and the debate for goal line technology will inevitably flare up once again as Terry hooked Devic’s deflected effort out from under his own crossbar. Television replays showed that the ball had crossed the line although England will feel justice has been served following their ‘ghost goal’ against Germany in the World Cup two years ago.
That seemed to knock the wind out of Blokhin’s men as he introduced Andriy Shevchenko from the substitutes bench after he was omitted from the starting lineup due to injury. But the 35-year-old was unable to replicate the heroics that saw him singlehandedly drag his country to a win over Sweden in the opening game as England held on to take top spot in Group D setting up a quarter final date with Italy.