Trubin heroics send Ukraine to play-offs, Benfica keeper shines | OneFootball

The Ukrainian national team secured a place in the playoffs this Sunday, November 16. The Eastern European team needed to beat Iceland to keep their 2026 World Cup dream alive and the goal was achieved in the final stretch of the match (2-0), with Anatoliy Trubin standing out.

The score remained goalless for 83 minutes and, for the most part, this was due to the intervention of the Benfica player. The Ukrainian goalkeeper denied Iceland a certain goal in the 77th minute, after a header from Palsson. The Ukrainians pressed and scored first from a corner, in a moment of great emotion in Warsaw, the team’s adopted home in Poland.

After Oleksandr Zubkov’s goal (83’), the visitors tried to react, but Oleksiy Gutsulyak (90’) sealed the result in stoppage time with a deflected shot. This victory allowed Serhiy Rebrov’s side to secure second place in Group D, while Iceland finished third and thus ended their qualification campaign without repeating their historic 2018 World Cup appearance.

In the other match of the final round in this group, already-qualified France even found themselves behind, but managed a comeback on their visit to Azerbaijan (3-1). Ukraine will now play in the World Cup qualifying playoff, which will feature the 12 second-placed teams from this group stage and the four best group winners from the last Nations League who finish World Cup qualifying in third place or lower.

Thus, there will be 16 teams competing for four spots in the tournament. Ukraine, with Anatoliy Trubin and Georgiy Sudakov (who is injured), is now seeking qualification for the second World Cup in its history, having only participated once before, in the 2006 edition in Germany.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.