(Football news) Halfway through the half, Albert Gudmundsson, who scored a hat-trick in Iceland’s 4-1 victory against Israel the previous weekend, scored a fantastic first goal to put the visitors up at the half.
Nevertheless, Ukraine heroically battled back in the second half, with Chelsea winger Mykhaylo Mudryk scoring a thrilling victory in the 84th minute after Viktor Tsyhankov equalized in the 54th.
The team led by Serhiy Rebrov has successfully qualified for their fourth consecutive European Championships. They will compete in Group E this summer alongside Slovakia, Belgium, and Romania, with their first match against the latter scheduled for June 17.
In front of over 30,000 raucous supporters, Ukraine made a bright start to proceedings but were unable to create any clear-cut chances, with all three of their shots inside the opening 25 minutes fizzing wide.
Iceland relied on the counter-attack to make their mark in the final third, and they were not too far away from opening the scoring when Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson fired a testing shot towards the far corner, but Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin was at full stretch to keep the scores level.
However, the visitors eventually made the breakthrough on the half-hour mark in stunning fashion when Gudmundsson weaved his way past a couple of Ukraine defenders into a central position on the edge of the area, before placing a pinpoint finish into the bottom-right corner.
Ukraine responded well, and after Hakon Valdimarsson made a superb save to keep out a powerful effort from Heorhiy Sudakov, the hosts thought they had restored parity in the 39th minute, but Roman Yaremchuk was ruled offside by VAR after slotting the ball into the back of the net.
Another second-half comeback – just like their 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina last weekend in which they scored twice in the final five minutes to set up Tuesday’s contest with Iceland – was required from Ukraine if they were to progress to Euro 2024.
Rebrov’s half-time team talk certainly did the trick, as his Ukraine side came out of the blocks after the break and netted an equaliser just nine minutes after the restart when Tsyhankov cut inside from the right and bent a brilliant left-footed strike from the edge of the box into the far corner.
Both teams made changes for the final half-hour, with Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko brought on for Ukraine at the expense of Ruslan Malinovskyi, while Iceland duo Orri Oskarsson and Kolbeinn Finnsson replaced Andri Gudjohnsen and Gudmundur Thorarinsson.
Ukraine looked the most likely to snatch victory in the closing stages; Yaremchuk fired a right-footed shot agonisingly wide from close range before Sudakov had an effort towards the top-right corner saved by Thorsteinsson.
Iceland still posed a threat on the counter-attack, though, and almost regained the lead when Thorsteinsson cut inside and shifted the ball on to his right foot before watching his strike arrowing towards the top corner expertly saved by the fingertips of Lunin.
But in the last third, Ukraine had the better of the match, and six minutes from the end, Mudryk scored his country’s first goal of the match with his right foot, curling it into the lower left corner from about 20 yards out.
After making their debut in 2016, Age Hareide’s team failed to qualify for only their second European Championships because Iceland was unable to rally in the final minutes.
Ukraine, who have already won 14 of their previous 20 Euro qualifiers, managed to win a playoff match on their third try, having lost at this stage in 2000 and 2016, to guarantee their place in this summer’s competition in Germany.
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