There are never too many victories – this is exactly about the Ukrainian national team. Having waited for real football from the national team and above all for results in the 14th year of independence, Ukrainian fans are finally feeling the breath of wind that could carry the Ukrainian national team into the final part of the world championship in Germany. Another step toward 2006 was an away victory over the Albanian national team with a score of 2:0.

On the eve of the game in Tirana, Ukrainian supporters were intimidated by both injuries to Shevchenko and Voronin and the frantic support of local fans and the "invincibility" of the Albanian team, but nothing could stop the Ukrainian national team that evening. Accurate strikes by Andriy Rusol and Andriy Husin brought Ukraine three important points and consolidated leadership in Group 2.

Blokhin did not invent the bicycle in the starting lineup for the match against the Albanians, but relied on experienced performers who had played in most of the previous matches of this qualifying cycle. The only surprise could be considered the presence on the field of Andriy Husin, who had no significant match practice during the winter off-season, and the absence of Andriy Vorobey from the starting lineup.

As for tactics, it was traditional away tactics for the Ukrainian team – playing on counterattacks.

From the very first minutes of the meeting, the Albanian national team, supported by a packed stadium of loud fans, went forward, but the hosts' coordinated assault on Shovkovskyi's goal did not work out, and more resembled an ordinary onslaught with the aim of, perhaps, scoring. True, the players of both teams played at decent speeds and the Ukrainians, most of whose players are only entering the season, were in no way inferior to their opponents. Voronin was especially active, managing both to win the ball in his own half of the field and to press near the Albanian national team's goal, as was Tymoshchuk.

Despite the slight territorial advantage of Briegel's team at the start, it was the Ukrainians who delivered the first shot on target. In the 21st minute, from about 37 meters from a free kick, Shevchenko tried to beat the goalkeeper, but hit the goalkeeper straight in the hands. Closer to the end of the first half, Shovkovskyi also had to enter the game, pulling a shot from Aliai out from under the crossbar. In one of the Albanians' attacks, only a desperate sliding tackle by Tymoshchuk saved Shovkovskyi from a one-on-one with the hosts' forward.

The Ukrainians' counterattack in the 38th minute became a cold shower for the Albanian national team. Voronin delivered a corner from the left flank and the ball, flying past Shevchenko, landed on the foot of Dnipro defender Rusol, who with a turning shot under the crossbar beat Strakosha and put his team ahead – 0:1!

In the next attack, Voronin shot dangerously, but the ball went over the goal. The Albanians responded to the Ukrainians' goal in the first part of the game with an inaccurate shot by Hakshi.

It seems that the Ukrainians did fulfill Blokhin's instructions for the first half. There were practically no dangerous moments near their goal, and the goal scored from a set piece only once again confirms the diagnosis that the blue-and-yellows are recovering after a long illness called – using their chances.

The start of the final 45 minutes turned out to be unpleasant for Blokhin's team. Again the hosts' opening onslaught and as a result several moments to score against Shovkovskyi. The most real of which came in the third minute of the second half, when after Aliai's shot Shovkovskyi failed to hold the ball, and Duro and Lala in turn failed to finish it off.

A few minutes later, Bushi finished an attack with a spectacular scissor kick, but his shot went just wide of the post.

Having withstood this pressure too, the Ukrainians began to create their own chances. In one of them, after Tymoshchuk's cross, only the goalkeeper prevented Husin from connecting with the pass. By the way, Husin, for whom there was no place in Kyiv's Dynamo, not only scored a goal, but also became the shadow of the Albanian leader Tare, who had already been substituted at the start of the second half due to his uselessness in this game…

In the 56th minute, Shevchenko also reminded everyone of himself, having been barely noticeable in the first 45 minutes. After his pass, Voronin was going one-on-one with Strakosha from an acute angle, but fell in a collision with him and received a yellow card from the referee… for simulation. After the Bayer forward got up from the turf, he was also attacked by Strakosha, but the referee intervened in time in a possible scuffle between the players. Despite everything, for his insolence the Albanian national team goalkeeper was punished with a goal from Voronin's namesake – Andriy Husin.

Shevchenko crossed from the corner of the penalty area into the goalkeeper's area and Andriy Husin, ramming through the Albanian defense from two meters, literally carried the ball into Strakosha's goal – 0:2. It was this goal that broke the fighting spirit of the Albanian national team, the stadium fell silent, and the players of both teams reduced their speed. The Albanians had a few more half-chances to score, and the most dangerous came in the 90th minute, when Skela from a free kick hit the crossbar of the Ukrainian national team's goal.

The Ukrainians brought the match to the final whistle without particular extra effort, obtaining their fourth victory in the qualifying tournament. After the game, almost all the blue-and-yellow players ended up in Blokhin's embrace. As for the team's play as a whole, the only player of the Ukrainian team who somewhat fell out of Blokhin's picture was Ruslan Rotan. Among the most active were Tymoshchuk, Shelayev, Husin and Voronin. Somewhat passive in attack and in the struggle for the ball was Shevchenko. All the others played at their level, which was enough for an important victory.

As for the substitutions made by Blokhin, namely the appearance on the field of Rykun and Vorobey, they did not particularly strengthen the game, but they did not spoil the picture either. Blokhin himself continues to maintain the Ukrainian team's unbeaten streak in official matches, which already totals six games. The Ukrainian national team will play its next match at the end of March against the Danish team.

The Greek national team moved into second place in the Group 2 standings, having beaten the Danish team 2:1 on Wednesday.

Group 2.

Albania - Ukraine - 0:2 Goals: Rusol 38, Husin 59. Albania: Strakosha, Dallku, Cipi (Osmani 57), Sana, Hakshi, Lala, Skela, Duro, Aliai, Tare (Bogdan 65), Bushi (Murtaj 76) UKRAINE: Shovkovskyi, Yezerskyi, Rusol, Husyn, Nesmachnyi, Shelayev, Tymoshchuk, Rotan (Vorobey 66), Husiev, Shevchenko, Voronin (Rykun 82).

Tournament standings: 1. UKRAINE - 14 (6 matches). 2. Greece – 8 (5). 3. Denmark - 6 (5). 4. Turkey - 6 (5). 5. Albania - 6 (4). 6. Georgia - 5 (4). 7. Kazakhstan - 0 (4).

Football. Albania – Ukraine: Blokhin's post-match press conference

Oleh Blokhin, head coach of the Ukrainian national team, about the match with Albania:

- On the eve of the match I said that the Albanian national team is the favorite for one simple reason: all their players are in good playing form, while for us only Voronin and Shevchenko have sufficient match practice. When these players received injuries on the eve of the match, we faced certain difficulties, and Fedorov was also ruled out. I want to thank the team for being able to secure a victory in such a difficult situation on February 9. At the moment we cannot play at the same tempo for all 90 minutes. Therefore we built the game from defense in the hope of counterattacks. In the first half no goal-scoring chances were created and we were lucky that we managed to score from a set piece.

In the second half, in my opinion, the game went on until the moment of who would score – the Albanians or us. From the 80th minute it was very difficult for us, because the players were tired, did not manage to close down the opponent's players, we sat deep in the penalty area and thereby allowed the Albanians to create many goal-scoring chances. I believe that today luck was on our side. Although we confidently occupy first place in the group, this does not decide anything yet, there is still half the distance ahead.

- It seemed that Ruslan Rotan did not look very confident in the first half...

- Until the 25th minute the whole team was very nervous, it did not look like itself. In general, in my opinion, there was no good play, only self-sacrifice and desire were at the level, the game itself did not please me. And, in principle, it would be naive to expect good play on February 9. The main thing is that we achieved the result today.