Ukraine advances, beating Tunisia 1-0

BERLIN — Ukraine made history at its first World Cup.

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 second-place team from Group G.

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.