On 9 October 1999, a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

match took place between

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and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Luzhniki Stadium The Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, commonly known as Luzhniki Stadium, is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. Its total seating capacity of 78,011 makes it the List of football stadiums in R ...

. It was the final match for both nations in

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in the qualifying tournament for

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

Overview

This match and the earlier between both nations in Euro 2000 qualifying, which Ukraine won 3–2, remain the only times Russia and Ukraine have faced each other in official competition. In addition to the football ramifications, the game had a wider significance as a contest between two neighboring former Soviet countries and was attended by many Russian celebrities as well as

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. Entering the match, Russia needed a win to guarantee progression to the Euro 2000, while Ukraine only needed a draw to guarantee at least 2nd place and thus a play-off berth. Needing a win, Russia was on the attack much of the game looking for a go-ahead goal. In the 75th minute

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opened the score with a powerful free kick. This appeared to provide Russia the result they needed, and Ukraine was heading out of qualifying. However, in the 87th minute,

Andriy Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (, ; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian former Manager (association football), football manager and Football player, player. Shevchenko is considered one of the greatest Striker (association football), strik ...

sent a long free kick towards the Russian goal. The shot appeared to be savable, but Russian goalkeeper

Aleksandr Filimonov Aleksandr Vladimirovich Filimonov (; born 15 October 1973) is a former association football goalkeeper from Russia. He won the 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup with the Russia national beach soccer team. During his professional career, he wa ...

was surprised by the effort and, trying to catch the ball, knocked it into his own net. The match ended in a 1–1 draw, which combined with other results left Ukraine in second place behind

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. Ukraine qualified for a two-match play-off, which they lost to

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, while Russia fell to third place and were eliminated from qualifying.

Match details

Aftermath

The two Euro 2000 qualifiers remain the only time that Russia and Ukraine have played each other in an international "A" match, giving Ukraine the head-to-head advantage of one win and one draw. Following the start of the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

in 2014,

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

decreed that representative teams from either nation at club and international level cannot play against each other outside of knockout competitions. After the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

in 2022, the

Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it organizes Russian amateur and professional football, includi ...

has been suspended from

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

and UEFA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russia vs Ukraine (1999) Ukraine, 1999 Russia, 1999 UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying 1999 in Russian football 1999 in Russian sport 1999–2000 in Ukrainian football UEFA European Championship matches October 1999 sports events in Europe 1999 in Moscow Sports competitions in Moscow Football in Moscow