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Ukraine's biggest game yet - Shevchenko
29/06/2006: Andriy Shevchenko claims Ukraine are gearing up for their meeting with Italy knowing it is the country's biggest game in their history.
The 29-year-old captain, who joined Chelsea for £30million before the World Cup, will be going up against a number of his former AC Milan team-mates in Hamburg on Friday with a place in the last four of the tournament up for grabs.
A victory would be an astonishing achievement for a country taking part in its first World Cup and has only existed since it broke away from the former Soviet Union in 1991.
Shevchenko realises Italy will be favourites but he is relishing trying to put one over the country where he has spent the majority of his playing career.
He said: "The Italy team is full of talent, and some of them are my former comrades.
"I spent seven marvellous years in Italy and I owe the country a lot - but now we are playing against them in what is the most important fixture in the history of Ukraine."
He added: "Italy must be favourites. But what we have to do is stick together as a team and as a unit and play with all our hearts to compensate for our weaknesses."
Ukraine have already been rocked by the loss of Andriy Voronin due to a thigh injury picked up against Switzerland on Monday, but coach Oleg Blokhin will welcome back suspended pair Andriy Rusol and Vyacheslav Sviderskyi, while Vladimir Yezerskyi is back from injury.
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