The Ukrainian national soccera team delivered a convincing victory over Australia in the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, winning 2:1. This is reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing the official UAF website. This win secures the Ukrainian team's place in the quarterfinals, where they are set for a key showdown against the powerhouse Brazilian national team.
Match progression: two quick goals and a penalty
The Ukrainians set a high pace from the opening minutes. As early as the 8th minute, Serhiy Hrybal (listed as Hrybal in the official summary) opened the scoring, and in the 12th minute Yuriy Shcheritsa doubled the lead, confidently converting a penalty. In the 23rd minute, the Australians pulled one back through an own goal by Tymofiy Lystopad, but no further goals were recorded before the final whistle, and the Ukrainian team held on to the winning result. Final score: Ukraine – Australia – 2:1 (Hrybal, 8; Shcheritsa, 12, penalty — Lystopad, 23, own goal).
Flawless group stage
Mikhail Shevchenko's charges entered the knockout stage as the leaders of their group: during the group stage the team collected 9 points out of a possible 9. The "blue-and-yellow" side beat Lebanon (2:0), thrashed Pakistan (6:0), and defeated Georgia (3:0), which allowed them to advance to the second round of the knockout stage immediately after the win over the Georgians, leaving their group rivals with no chance whatsoever.
Brazil as the main test
In the quarterfinals the Ukrainians will face the Brazilian national team — one of the tournament favorites. For the national soccera team, this match will be an opportunity to improve on the result set at the previous World Cup, where the "blue-and-yellow" side also stopped at the quarterfinal stage. Thus, a win over the Brazilians will open the path to the semifinals and become a historic achievement for Ukrainian soccera.
Contradictory data
The primary materials contain a minor discrepancy in the spelling of the surname of the player who scored the first goal: the match progression description mentions "Serhiy Hrybal," while the official goals line records "Hrybal, 8." The differences are of an orthographic/name-reading nature and do not affect the essence of the event — the scorer of the goal in the 8th minute is the same player. For the canonical spelling of the surname, the official UAF summary should be taken as the reference. In addition, Tymofiy Lystopad's own goal in the results line is attributed to the Australian side, which is logical: a ball put into one's own net is credited to the opponent, and it is exactly how it is counted in the final 2:1 score.
