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Spain suffered its first defeat in the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League, with a 1-0 loss to Ukraine on Tuesday night at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.
After narrowly beating Switzerland on Saturday, La Roja’s attack was never fired and opened the door for Ukraine to score a late-winning goal courtesy of Viktor Tsygankov. However, the result still keeps Spain atop Group Four after second-place Germany drew 3-3 with Switzerland.
Head coach Luis Enrique opted for the young duo of Adama Traore and Ansu Fati to join Rodrigo at the top, while Jesús Navas and Sergio Reguilon were placed on the wings.
The first big opportunity was for Spain, with Navas serving a perfect one-inch cross to Rodrigo, who sent a stinging header into goal that Ukrainian goalkeeper Heorhiy Bushchan flipped over the crossbar. Minutes later, Bushchan again came to the rescue of Ukraine to deflect an effort by Sergio Ramos.
In general, however, Spain were having a difficult time penetrating the Ukrainian defense, particularly on the wings where Traore and Fati were unable to work their magic one-on-one. Luis Enrique made his first change during intermission, with the change of Mikel Merino for Dani Ceballos.
Ukraine came out with much more energy and urgency to start the second half and looked to hit Spain hard on the counter. Perhaps restless about the start of his team’s second stage, Luis Enrique returned to his bench and replaced the ineffective Fati with Ferran Torres, while Mikel Oyarzabal replaced Rodrigo.
The changes restored momentum to Spain and Rodri almost struck in a rare shot from a distance, only to see him open up.
The next dice roll was Dani Olmo’s tackle by Sergio Canales, which came immediately after a deft one-two combination that ended with Bushchan denying Ferran Torres from a few yards away.
However, just when it looked like Spain would finally break through, Ukraine turned the game around.
Andriy Yarmolenko whistled a pass to the Tsygankov streak, whose first touch couldn’t have been better and, with Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea in no-man’s-land far from his line, Tsygankov fired a rocket into goal for Ukraine’s 1 lead -0.
Spain looked for a late response in hopes of salvaging a draw, but the closest they came was a volley from Sergio Ramos that spun over the bar and left Luis Enrique’s men empty-handed.
Match sheet:
1.- Ukraine: Bushchan; Karavaev, Zabarnyi, Mykolenko, Sobol; Sydorchuk (Kovalenko, min. 61), Makarenko, Shaparenko; Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk, Zubkov (Tsygankov, min. 65).
0.- Spain: De Gea; Jesus Navas, Ramos, Pau Torres, Reguilon; Rodri, Canales, Merino (Ceballos, min. 46); Adama, Rodrigo (Oyarzabal, min. 58), Ansu Fati (Ferran Torres, min. 58).
Goals: 1-0, min. 76: Tsygankov
Referee: Pawel Gil (Poland). Yellow cards: none
Red cards: none
Stadium: Olympic
Attendance: 10,000
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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