Ukraine have beaten Switzerland 3-0 in a penalty shootout, after neither team could find a breakthrough after the game finished 0-0 after 120-minutes of tepid football.

The game started (and continued) rather slowly, with both sides knowing before the match that the winner would meet Italy in the quarter-finals, and both sides tentatively testing each other out.

Switzerland had the first real chance at goal from either side in the 12th minute, with a long-range strike from Rafael Wicky being saved well by Oleksandr Shovkovskyi in the Ukraine goal.

A free-kick from Maksym Kalinichenko had a was met well by captain Andriy Shevchenko in the penalty-area, but his header bounced off the ground and hit the bar to give the Swiss a scare.

Minutes later Swiss striker Alexander Frei took a free-kick from a dangerous area that also hit the crossbar as the game came to life after a very slow opening twenty minutes.

Ukraine had another chance on goal after Shevchenko started a great break on goal, but the Swiss defended well to deny a clear shot at goal.

Johan Djourou was replaced by Stefan Grichting in the 33rd minute sfter the Arsenal defender took a slight knock as the game started to slow again, with some rash tackles coming in from both sides.

Switzerland were starting to show their dominance, with some great build-up play, but lacking the final shot, and always the threat of a counter-attack from Ukraine.

Philipp Degen, who had gone in hard on a few tackles, was lucky not to get carded after hacking-down Andriy Nesmachniy minutes before half-time as the game started to heat up again, with half-chances on both sides, but nothing to trouble either keeper.

The game went into half-time 0-0 with Switzerland having the better chances at goal, but with possession roughly equal.

Ukraine came out for the second-half with far more intent, but still the game was lacking any sparkle.

Shevchenko had a strike go just wide in the 67th minute, with Swiss keeper Zuberbuehle rooted to the spot, but that was as close as any team had come to in an insipid start to the second-half.

Kalininchenko, who was excellent in his other matches, was replaced by Ruslan Rotan with fifteen minutes to go, with Ukraine needing to find that extra attacking spark.

Neither team seemed willing to take a chance to win the match, with corners being conceded on both sides, but both sides defending very well and nothing to truly worry either keeper.

With normal-time almost done, both sides suddenly had a last flourish but there was nothing to break the deadlock and the game went to extra-time with both teams starting to tire.

Extra-time brought no breakthrough, but saw by far the best passages of play of the match, but always the game looking like it was going to go to penalties.

Andriy Gusin made a fantastic last-ditch tackle on substitute Marco Streller as the game was running to a close and with penalties looming to decide the winner.

Strangely, Swiss head coach Köbi Kuhn substituted striker Alexander Frei for Mauro Lustrinelli as penalties loomed and that’s the way that things finished, with penalties to decide who would meet Italy.

Ukraine were the first team to miss, with the very first spot-kick from the Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko to give the Swiss the advantage.

The advantage was completely lost on them and proceeded to miss all of their penalty kicks, with Ukraine following-up with all theirs and now it is Ukraine that face Italy in their quarter-final.