World Cup qualifiers Ukraine drew 0-0 away to Azerbaijan on Wednesday in a World Cup warm-up match, missing their star-striker Andriy Shevchenko and failing to get on the scoresheet.

Ukraine controlled the match throughout, and created several scoring opportunities, but with the absence of AC Milan forward Andriy Shevchenko, the Eastern Europeans failed to capitalise on any of their chances.

The Ukraine almost took the lead after eighth-minutes when Andrii Voronin's cross into the box found it’s target, Spartak Moscow midfielder Maksym Kalinichenko, who hit the crossbar.

Oleksiy Belik almost scored off the rebound but his header was punched away by goalkeeper Farhad Veliyev.

Azerbaijan's only scoring chance of the game came in the 33rd minute, when Rashad Sadigov's shot from 22 yards shaved the Ukraine post.

Ukraine had several more chances before the half-time break, with Kalinichenko and Belik missing Ruslan Rotan's cross into the box a minute before the interval.

Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin made three second-half substitutions but the pattern of missed chances continued. Veliyev blocked Serhiy Fedorov's header off Kalinichenko's cross from the left, and, two minutes later, Serhiy Rebrov fired from inside the box but hit the outside of the net.

The Ukraine’s last scoring opportunity came seven minutes from time when Belik failed to beat ‘keeper Veliyev in a one-on-one encounter after the goalkeeper had failed to clear the ball.

Ukraine have been drawn in Group H in the World Cup Finals alongside Spain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

Players used:

Azerbaijan:
Farhad Veliyev; Rashad Sadigov, Sergey Sokolov, Azer Mammadov; Jeyhun Sultanov (Vugar Nadyrov, 69), Emin Immanaliyev ( Elvin Nuriyev, 90), Ramazan Abbasov (Ramshad Abdullayev, 61), Elmar Bakhshiyev (Aftandil Hajiyev, 55), Aslan Kerimov; Ilgar Gurbanov (Elshan Mammadov, 69), Nadir Nabiyev (Ramin Guliyev, 88).

Ukraine:
Bohdan Shust; Volodymyr Yezerskyi, Andrii Rusol (Vladyslav Vashchuk, 46), Serhiy Fedorov, Andrii Nesmachnyi (Andriy Vorobei, 46), Oleg Gusiev, Ruslan Rotan (Serhiy Serebryannikov, 58), Andrii Husin (Oleg Shelayev, 59), Maksym Kalinichenko (Serhiy Nazarenko, 83), Andrii Voronin (Serhiy Rebrov, 46), Oleksiy Belik.

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