Ukraine through as Spain tops group

A controversial second-half penalty has seen Ukraine through against Tunisia to qualify for the final 16 while Spain completed a hat-trick of wins in the group stage after they accounted for Saudi Arabia 1-0.

Ukraine needed to win in Berlin to ensure they’d get through to the second round, but a dogged Tunisia made it difficult, though the North Africans never really threatened to win themselves.

Tunisia lost Zied Jaziri just before half-time after he got his second yellow card of the match, and the best chances fell to the Europeans in the first half through Anatoliy Tymoschuk and Andriy Shevchenko but the duo failed to hit the back of the net.

Andriy Rusol’s yellow card in the 65th minutes will rule him out of Ukraine’s second round match against Switzerland, but six minutes later Shevchenko seemingly fell over his own feet in the area but was given a penalty, which he calmly slotted to give his side the lead.

Tunisia fought hard to get back in the match, with their best chance coming from exciting full back Hatem Trabelsi’s daring run and shot, but they couldn’t find an equaliser and they leave Germany with the one solitary point from three solid performances.

In Kaiserslautern, Spain rounded off their group games with a regulation 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia to head into the second round of the tournament full of confidence.

Spain boss Luis Aragones played a second string side to rest up his first team stars, and the Saudis gave a good account of themselves.

But Gutierrez Juanito’s 36th minute header was enough to see Spain confirm their top-of-the-group status, and they’ll take on France in a blockbuster second round contest.

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