Game4Ukraine: All-star teams play in London to raise funds for Ukraine
The all-star teams of famous Ukrainian footballers Andrii Shevchenko and Oleksandr Zinchenko met at Stamford Bridge in London on 5 August to support Ukraine. The match ended in a draw.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda
Details: Before the game, singer Jamala performed the Ukrainian national anthem, and then Ukrainian schoolchildren signed T-shirts of international stars. These autographed T-shirts will later be given away for donations.
Before the game, an address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was broadcast, followed by a minute of silence.
The line-ups included world-famous footballers, actors and singers.
The full list of the players was announced earlier by Ukrainska Pravda.
The teams started off strong, attacking each other, but thanks to the excellent performance of goalkeepers Petr Čech and Jens Lehmann, there were no goals in the first half-hour.
Early in the game, Oleksandr Zinchenko, the captain of the Team Yellow, had to be replaced; 15 minutes after that, the leader of Team Blue, Andrii Shevchenko, left the pitch as well.
In the 24th minute, the match was halted to honour the courage of the Ukrainians, with fans applauding.
It was only in the 32nd minute that English ex-footballer and coach Jack Wilshere, who played for the Team Yellow, scored the first goal, which was cancelled due to an alleged offside. However, the VAR replay showed that there was no offside. Still, the goal was not awarded.
The Team Yellow officially opened the score, with Englishman Mark Noble outplaying Čech and scoring a goal.
After that, two legendary Ukrainian footballers, Andrii Shevchenko and Serhii Rebrov, met on the field for the first time in 25 years.
A few minutes later, AC Milan legend Clarence Seedorf (Team Blue) equalised the score by turning and landing a powerful left-footed shot into the far top corner.
Shevchenko's team had a chance to win back before half-time; Gerard Piqué fired a precise shot from the bottom, but Lehmann was able to reach the ball and make it hit the crossbar.
The players made it to half-time with a 1-1 tie.
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During the game, the teams made substitutions. Spectators were shown how the coaches, Arsène Wenger and Emma Hayes, prepared their teams for the second half.
The Ukrainian Mykhailo Mudryk and the Croatian Darijo Srna, the legend of the Donetsk-based Shakhtar football club, appeared in the second half.
The commentators said that during the break, one of the children ran onto the pitch and approached Mudryk, who gave him his training shirt, which caused a huge ovation from the stadium.
In the second half, the goalkeepers also changed – Lehmann and Čech were replaced by Englishman David James and Brazilian Dida.
A few minutes into the game, Noble (Team Yellow) could have completed a successful pass, but he was offside at that moment.
In the 53rd minute, Zinchenko's team took the lead again, when Srna scored.
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Meanwhile, Shevchenko came onto the pitch for the third time.
In the 60th minute, Mudryk could have levelled the score, as he hit the crossbar from a great distance from outside the penalty area. After that, Mykhailo was replaced.
Later, another former player of the Ukrainian national team appeared on the pitch. It was Brazilian Junior Moraes, who had obtained Ukrainian citizenship and thus earned the right to perform for the Yellow Blues.
In the 78th minute, Jermain Defoe (Team Blue) made a through ball that was headed in by 45-year-old William Gallas, who thus equalised the score at 2-2.
In the 85th minute, Shevchenko's team earned a free kick, which Darijo Srna took and missed.
In the 91st minute, the referee gave the first yellow card in the match, as Noble tackled Joe Cole.
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Until the end of the match, it was unclear whether the game would end in a draw or a penalty shootout.
The players decided to finish the match with a 2-2 score.
After the game, all the players will receive memorabilia with elements of the Kotsiubynskyi lyceum [specialised secondary school -ed.], destroyed by Russia, for which money was raised in this match.
The game was broadcast on 25 channels in over 200 countries.
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