Jagielka and Cahill come of age in cauldron of Kiev as England battle for crucial point
Take your pick: was it Rome 1997 or Kiev 2012? Two goalless draws against Italy which have been filed with the benefit of hindsight as a glorious success and a terrible mess bringing gloom and self-loathing upon the national game.Roy Hodgson will go for the first, since a draw leaves England in control at the top of Group H but the rest of the nation will only join him if his team complete the task against Montenegro and Poland.
Hodgson left Kiev happier than he did after losing on penalties last time he was in the Olympic Stadium. Thankfully, this time it did not come down to penalties, which is just as well, since someone would have had to wake the goalkeepers.
Holding firm: Gary Cahill (left) goes in for a strong challenge with Ukraine's Edmar in the goalless draw
Flashback: But was the performance more Euro 2012 penalty loss against Italy...
...or the celebrated goalless draw in Rome in 1997 to put England through to France 98?
Joe Hart did not make a save until the 73rd minute, although there were plenty of occasions when Ukraine found themselves in dangerous positions around his penalty area but failed to convert them into shots on goal.
England, in reply, rarely approached Andriy Pyatov but for a few corners and, in this regard, the game was more akin to the Euro 2012 quarter-final defeat, when Hodgson’s team repelled Italy for two hours before inevitably folding in the shoot-out.
Ultimately, this is about qualifying for Brazil. It was going to come down to a clean sheet and England achieved this with Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka, criticised for not being world-class, proving you do not have to be against opposition who are not world-class either.
In the long run it will be different. For now, they will squirrel away the point and see what next month brings.
Battle: Phil Jagieka (right) fights for the ball with Ukraine's Roman Zozulya
When England were last in Ukraine for a qualifier, it was to play in Dnipropetrovsk, where the atmosphere was far more intense. These days, international arenas are relatively sanitised and Hodgson’s mix of cap-heavy veterans and international rookies did not seem perturbed by the din rattling across the athletics track.
Four years ago, the crowd were stacked up close to the pitch and the game had to be stopped twice in the opening minutes to clear fireworks from Rob Green’s goalmouth. Green was sent off, Ukraine were later fined and England lost 1-0.
It was noisy in Kiev with nearly 70,000 cheering on a team which is unbeaten since Mykhailo Fomenko took over in December.
Skipper: Steven Gerrard applauds the travelling England fans (below) after the hard-fought game
Out with the flares, in with the flair. England had been warned to expect an aggressive tempo from the home team and they were not disappointed. All those doubts about the quality of Hodgson’s central defence came creeping back as the back-line was sliced open.
Ukraine might have won a penalty in the first minute. Perhaps in Dnipropetrovsk, with the crowd closer to the pitch, it might have been awarded. Perhaps Hodgson’s comments bemoaning how decisions always go against him had worked. This time Portuguese referee Pedro Proenca sided with him.
Formenko, who had barely uttered a word on the eve of the game but sprang a surprise by starting with 130-cap captain Anatoliy Tymoshchuk on the bench, would have silently fumed.
Ton-up: Frank Lampard plays the ball past Ukraine's Taras Stepanenko
His team ought to have taken advantage of their superiority in the first half-hour and the worry for Hodgson was that much of the threat came from the attacking instinct of Ukraine’s right back Artem Fedetskiy, who twice appeared at the far post but failed to test Hart.
James Milner was selected ahead of alternatives to supply added protection. According to ProZone, Milner got through an average of 12.9km per game in the Barclays Premier League last season, which is more than 1.5km more than the average midfielder.
Yet it was organisation and communication which let England down in this phase, when a more clinical team might have punished them. Gerrard was the nearest to Federskiy when he first gave Cole the slip, and then it was Milner.
Coach Ray Lewington implored the team to advance as a block but they had been squeezed back.
Rickie Lambert, as a result, was isolated up front.
Physical: Ukraine's Oleksandr Kucher cuts down flying England forward Theo Walcott
The former beetroot potter ought to have been at home in the land where the vegetable is the basis for the national soup but found himself starved of service and his hopes of extending his goal-a-game start to his international career were slim.
He won his share in the air, he held it up now and then, his touch was decent, but he suffered from the scarcity of support. As did Jack Wilshere, who was disappointing in possession, always searching for a short pass or a one-two, only to find his team-mates were far away.
It wasn’t a triumphant 100th cap for Lampard, who became the first England man since Peter Shilton to reach the landmark in a competitive game, but he will take a hard-earned point, which may yet extend his career to another World Cup.
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