Group H Ukraine v Tunisia He waited long enough to get here but this afternoon in Berlin Andriy Shevchenko has a great chance to remind the world of his prowess and send Ukraine into the last 16.
Perhaps Oleg Blokhin's team were a little dazzled by the occasion in their opening game but they recovered from that disastrous 4-0 loss to place themselves in a strong position for the second placing with a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia.
That game gave Shevchenko, the 29-year-old Chelsea-bound star his first goal of the tournament and also introduced a few of his international colleagues, with Maxim Kalinichenko keeping the Saudi's under constant pressure with a series of perfect dead-ball deliveries for the target man to work with. He played a hand in the Ukraine's historic opening goal.
Tunisia are waiting on fitness reports on Francileudo dos Santos, their Brazilian-born attacker who has not been able to line out as yet. A win could also put them through, thanks largely to Bolton's Radhi Jaidi, who landed an injury-time goal for a draw against the Saudis.
But Ukraine's humiliation by the Spaniards was an aberration: goalkeeper Oleksander Shovkovski had kept six consecutive clean sheets prior to that match. And with Vladislav Vashchyuk due to come back into the Ukrainian defence, it is highly probable they will close out the Tunisians.
Tunisia's goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel is the fifth oldest man to play in a World Cup. The 40-year-old has a chance to bow out in one of the great sporting theatres but it will be a major surprise if he isn't beaten.
Ukraine should come through and are the kind of team that those with title aspirations will look at with a shudder.
Ukraine (4-4-2)
Shovkovsky; Rusol, Vashchyuk, Nesmachny, Gusev; Tymoshchyuk, Shelayev, Kalinichenko, Rebrov; Shevchenko, Voronin
Tunisia (4-4-2)
Boumnijel; Trabelsi, Jaidi, Hagui, Ayari; Namouchi, Mnari, Chedil, Nafti; Bouazizi, Jaziri.
Probable line-ups Referee: Carlos Amarilla (Paraguay) Kick-off: 3.0pm Venue: Olympiastadion, Berlin On TV: Highlights UTV (11.0)
