Ukraine v Sweden: live - Telegraph 45 min Jonathan Liew on that disappointing volley: 42 min The roar every time Ukraine do something reasonably well, or get on the ball in Sweden's third, must be actively off-putting for the players. Yarmolenko makes it to the byline and finds Konoplianka on the far post. The youngster steels himself for a volley... And screws it miles over. You feel Ukraine are going to need a superb long-range shot or a fluke-tastic close-ranger to score. Their conventional finishing has not been strong. 39 min Ibrahimovic hits the post! Free kick out wide and the Ukraine defence forget what they do for a living, leaving Zlatan in space close to the far post. Heads it, beats Pyatov, but it brushes the base of the post. It's come to life! Kind of! It's a festival of almost-goals! 38 min Great chance for Ukraine! Shevechenko forces a save from Iskasson, it's headed back across goal and cleared to Yarmolenko six yards out... It's deflcted behind for a corner. Too much on it, and Sweden eventually win a goal kick. 35 min It's Ukraine on the ball. It's low on incident. It's not all that good. I thought I did enough fate-tempting at the beginning of this liveblog to avoid this kind of thing... Ooh hand on, here's Voronin, cutting inside at pace in the middle of the pitch and unleashing a fearsome shot from 25 yards. Iskasson beats it away with an unorthodox flourish, and is fortunate to see it fall away from the advancing Yarmolenko. That's a bit better. Both sides rather cancelling each other out, and someone surely needs to have a proper go, given that England and France drew. 31 min There's an awful lot of falling over and minor fouling going on. Zlatan has a shot from 30 yards wide on the right.... and it's out for a throw. Group D is letting the tournament down so far. Oh Group D, why can't you be more like Groups A, B and C? 30 min Nazarenko hammers a free kick into the box from deep on the left. Overhit, as every free kick of this game seems to have been so far. All the way through to Iskasson who takes a high catch. The peerless and sometimes unintelligable Danish correspondent Soren Assmann has this to offer: If the Swedish away is gorgeous, the Danish home - to be seen on Wednesday - is second overall. Our brothers from the north seem more structural so far. Are there no male fans with blonde pigtails in the crowd today? 28 min Sweden corner, cleared by Khacheri. 26 min Sweden are narrow, and allowing Ukraine to see a lot of the ball out wide. Gusev and Konoplianka look composed on it, but neither has yet produced much of any use. Ball from deep from Selin towards Voronin, the former Liverpool man attempts a handball as it gets away from him and can't even manage that. 23 min A great chance for Shevchenko! Plays a one-two with Yarmolenko and is in behind Granqvist. Tight angle but he screws it harmlessly wide. That.... is not ideal. 21 min Sweden beginning to nudge the match in their general direction. Tymoshcuk slips, Sweden break, Zlatan holds off about seven burly Ukrainians then finds Kallstrom. His cross for Rosenberg looks dangerous, but the striker is offside. 19 min These Ukranian fans may be the happiest people of Euro 2012 to date: 17 min Hairy moment for Ukraine at the back. Ibrahimovic crosses from the left and Pyatov elects to punch. Falls very close to Toivonen, is then cleared towards Larsson who's also lurking in the box, but Ukraine muster the ball clear. 16 min A wonderful fact, that will not change tonight: 14 min Larsson, suitably chastened after his unusually poor free kick a few minutes ago, is brushed aside so Elm can have a go from a similar position. The result is no different, it's overhit, and Zlatan fails to keep it in. Goal kick to Ukraine. 12 min Ukraine break and Kallstrom is penalised, then booked, for a slightly late slide tackle on Gusev. Ukraine will be heartened by their start, but it's a bit like the Czech Republic v Russia at the minute. You sense Sweden, surely the far better team, will step it up and begin to take control once they have the measure of their opponents. 11 min Seb Larsson stands over a free kick out wide on the left. A nation (Ukraine) says a prayer. The prayer, contrary to all scientific studies, works. Larsson overhits it and it's an easy claim in the air for Pyatov. 9 min Please be upstanding for the first pertinent statistical tweet this evening from our friends at Opta: 7 min Gusev and Konoplianka looking promising again for Ukraine. The former looks assured on the right, but overhits a cross. The latter cuts in off the left again and dribbles pas Elm but Mellberg stops him in his tracks. 5 min Good spell from the hosts, right back Gusev (confusingly wearing the number nine shirt) attacking down the flank and pleasingly un-hurried in his picking of a pass. Worked to the other side where Konoplianka shows an early flash of pace and shoots from range. It's wide. 3 min Ukraine just trying to settle in these opening stages. Palpable sense of a lot of people inside a every large stadium expecting far too much. Hard to see if there are loads of empty seats or just loads of people wearing yellow tops. 2 min Duke Addleman on football's pleasing surprises: How about three? Balotelli's childish ineffectiveness giving way to Di Natale's brilliance. Hart's butterfingered goalkeeping goes blissfully unpunished. The absence of Pele's obligatory outburst of self-aggrandizing pretournament poppycock. 1 min Horrendous kick-off countdown complete, and Sweden get us started. 19.44 The two captains, each their team's best-known players, attack the national anthems in a contrasting way. Shevchenko absolutely belts it out. Ibrahimovic stands stock still and looks angry. Singing is beneath him. 19.40 The teams are out. Sweden wearing their gorgeous away shirt. Possibly my favourite in the tournament. Look at it: 19.34 A stat? A lovely stat in a Tweet? Oh, go on then: Can't see that being added to here. If I was a betting man I'd be on 2-0 to Sweden. (I am a betting man and am on 2-0 to Sweden, to the tune of one English pound. I'm Batman.) 19.30 Splendid email contribution from Donncha Ó Conmhuí: Given the rampant blue-and-yellow situation going on in this game, I though I'd note that no two teams have played each other thus far without at least one common colour on their flags. In fact, there are only three group stage matches in which this will not be the case. Try to guess them: I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much more interesting it is than watching Martin Olsson and the Fallabouts. Sweden v England, England v Ukraine and Ireland v Spain? What do I win? 19.26 "IT'S VERY HOT" bellows Jonathan Pearce on the gantry in Kiev. Martin Keown with him, and doing that unnerving thing of speaking directly into the camera after being asked a question. Dusk and expectation in the Fan Mile (note: probably not a mile) downtown: 19.17 In a development that no-one in the world would describe as "surprising" the BBC coverage of this game is currently devoted to dissecting the England performance. Alan Shearer is back in the Salford studio, having been out in Poland for the first game. He's going to have an awful lot of Airmiles in three weeks' time. And be up to date with all of his favourite podcasts. 19.15 Here are the teams: Ukraine: Pyatov, Gusev, Mykhalyk, Khacheridi, Selin, Yarmolenko, Tymoschuk, Konoplianka, Nazarenko, Voronin, Shevchenko. Subs: Koval, Kucher, Garmash, Aliev, Shevchuk, Rakitskiy, Butko, Goryainov. Sweden: Isaksson, Lustig, Mellberg, Granqvist, Martin Olsson, Elm, Kallstrom, Larsson, Ibrahimovic, Toivonen, Rosenberg. Subs: Wiland, Svensson, Jonas Olsson, Antonsson, Wernbloom, Safari, Holmen, Hansson. Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey) 19.12 Ukraine, on the other hand have had a challenging build-up to the competition. Myron Marekevych, the manager they hoped would be taking them to this tournament, resigned after being emboriled in a bribary scandal, then his replacement Yuri Kalitvinstsev lead his team to one win in eight games. Under Blokhin, Ukraine have lost 4-1 to France and 2-0 to Sweden. Tings have picked up since, the first game at this very stadium was a 3-3 draw with Germany. Much is expected from 22-year-old midfielder Yevgen Konoplyanka, who scored an impressive goal in the game against Germany: 19.08 Much talk of Sweden being a potent attacking force these days, with Erik Hamren's team casting off the reputation for defensive carefulness and dire goalless draws with England that they developed during Lars Lagerback's nine years at the helm. John Guidetti, the Swedes' bright young thing (and, I'm pretty sure, a minor Sopranos character) is unfortunately not in the squad. The 20-year-old scored 20 goals while on loan at Feyernoord from Manchester City this season but has "done" his thigh. 18.51 It's finished 1-1 in the France v England match, for the six of you exclusively following this liveblog for their news updates. Also: Europe in financial crisis, it's raining, and David Cameron left his eight-year-old daughter in a pub. 18.46 On closer inspection I reckon that's a cheap knock-off retro shirt, so in answer to my qestion "what more could you want?" - a genuine shirt. 18.45 Just for the record, if you're ever hoping to get your picture in a liveblog I'm writing you can't go wrong with a retro shirt: The tattiness of this man's shorts and flags suggest to me that he would be carrying quite an unplesant odour. Still: the past! Football shirts from the past! What more could you want? 18.30 Good evening liveblog fans. It's the game we've all been waiting for! No, not really, it's Ukraine v Sweden, a game perhaps only matched for not looking like it's going to be very good by Greece v Czech Republic and Premier League fixtures that feature Stoke City. In fact I'm going to go ahead and call this what it is: the worst game, on paper, of the tournament. Obviously this title excludes any games that involve England. Of course it will now end 8-7 and be fantastic, as the rest of Euro 2012 has been. There are several other reasons to look on the bright side. Ukraine are hosts, so duty-bound to play above themselves and be supported in an exciting, noisy and hopefully-not-racist manner. • Sweden have Zlatan, who is a wonderful disgrace of a human being. • Ukraine have Andriy Shevchenko, who is 100. • I like both of these team's kits and flags. So we're all in agreement: 10/10, and well worth 90 minutes (plus 75 minutes of multimedia build-up) Team news and the colours yellow and blue over and over again to follow, stay tuned. Here's is a thing for you to read: Oleg Blokhin dismisses racism row and urges Ukraine players to be calm in face of 'tornado' of support