KIEV, Sept 8 (Reuters): Watch out France the Ukrainians are coming, and as their 3-2 win over old masters Russia on Saturday showed they do not respect history or tradition.
Ukraine satisfied not only a grudge bom of three centuries of Moscow rule when they won the first ever game between the former Soviet cousins but also believe they have established an equal right to the formidable footballing mantle of the USSR.
Sergiy Rebrov, the Dynamo Kiev striker whose 74th minute penalty wrapped up the European Championship Group Four qualifier after Chelsea goalkeeper Dmitry Kharin earned a red card for bringing him down, issued a warning that the world champions, too, should not feel too confident.
"The Russians thought they were favourites with France to go through from this group," Rebrov said.
"But. infact, we've shown there are three equal teams."
With the French held to a shock 1-1 draw in Iceland, Ukraine are in a strong position in Group Four after overcoming a ragged Russia side in a demolition that the scoreline belies.
Russia's new Ukrainian-born coach Anatoly Byshovets, called in after the Russians failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time for 20 years, faces an uphill task to mould his largely foreign-based side into a more cohesive unit
before France visit crisis-hit Moscow in a month.
Ukraine coaches Josef Sabo and Valery Lobanosky, both once Byshovets' team mates at Dynamo Kiev, not only have an easier Journey to Andorra but also can count on what amounts to an intensive team build-up through the involvement of a dozen of their squad in Dynamo Kiev's Champions',. League campaign.
The national team's victory over Russia in front of 82.000 passionate fans was greeted with nationwide rejoicing.
Three goals — three spoonfuls of honey in our gloomy lives," headlined Thekivskiye Vedomosti newspaper on Monday.
Prime Minister Valery Pus-tovoitenko, who is also head of the national soccer federation, was there. His government Is keen to put their new nation on the map through soccer, emulating tne likes of Croatia who Just pipped the Ukrainians to their first World Cup finals by winning a play-off last year.
Though Ukraine, like Russia. has grave economic problems, Dynamo Kiev and the national squad have secured substantial funding from business and official sources, allowing them to keep players, in the main, under local coaches.
Local media said the win over Russia brought in a further 100,000 US dollars in sponsorship for the victors — in sharp contrast to the losers who were delayed on their way to Kiev when the Moscow airport de-
manded cash up front for their plane's fuel.
"Russia lost not in Kiev but back in Moscow," Russia's Sport-Express newspaper said in commenting on the way financial hardships and government indifference had undermined Russian soccer, while the Ukrainians take a very different approach.
Russian-Ukrainian passions once were expressed in intense rivalry between Dynamo Kiev and Spartak Moscow, the two dominant clubs of the final three decades of Soviet soccer, and some Kremlinologists claimed to have seen early signs of the break-up of the USSR in their fans’ fighting on the football terraces.
When Ukraine went 2-0 up through Serhiy and Serhiy Skachenko inside 25 minutes, smoke flares obscured a section of the ground where several thousand travelling Russians were seated and some witnesses said police moved in to quell trouble.
However, police denied there was any crowed trouble and Kiev was Jubilant rather than tense after a game in which Russia restored some respectability only with two late goals.
Ukrainian fans are looking forward now to a head-to-head with France. The nation that produced the likes of Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov, can't wait to take on the world champions.