Germany crush Ukraine to win World Cup finals place

Germany hammered three goals past a dismal Ukraine side in the first 15 minutes of their World Cup play-off decider in Dortmund to reach the 2002 World Cup finals.

The Germans had planned a tour of the Far East for this week to prepare for the finals next May before their disastrous 5-1 rout by England in September sent them into these play-offs.

If the German team ended as a ragged wreck on that Munich night then Ukraine managed to start the game at the Westfalstadion in even worse shapeand ended losers by 4-1.

A nervous start by the visitors saw Germany decide to attack even though a draw would have been enough for them after Michael Ballack's away goal in the first leg.

It was Ballack again who started the scoring after a miskick by Oliver Neuville on the edge of the penalty area was not cleared twice by Ukraine defenders and Schneider crossed for an unmarked Ballack to head in with ease.

If that thrilled the Germans after a nervous start to this game they were in dreamland just seven minutes later when it became clear that the Ukraine defence was incapable of clearing crosses.

Marko Rehmer was allowed to jump and meet an outswinging corner and Neuville thrust the knockdown into the net from close range before Maxim Levitsky could save.

Ramelow added a third goal in the fifteenth minute after Carsten Ramelow had almost scored with a deflected shot onto the roof of the net and Levitsky had saved well from a Hamann cross shot when the defender buried a header from a corner.

Levitsky had to save at the feet of Christian Ziege on a run into the penalty area from the left but Andriy Shevchenko sent a clear warning to an unconvincing German dentral defence when he headed a cross wide with Ramelow and Nowotny unable to mark him properly.

That may have given Shevchenko hope for the second half but it was all gone in the 50th minute when Schneider crossed for another unmarked Ballack run and his header from in front of goal was his 6th in 8 starts for Voller's team.

With Jens Jeremies and Memhmet Scholl to return from injury and yet another bid to bring Stefan Effenberg back into the squad sure to be started soon, Voller's team can improve from this showing but it is hard to judge their strength from this game as Ukraine were so poor.

Shevchenko was rewarded for his great effort throughout the game by rounding German captain Oliver Kahn on a stumbling run in the 90th minute