No more croaking as Ukraine hit four

OLEG BLOKHIN found the perfect remedy for his team’s poor performance against Spain in their World Cup opener, and it paid off handsomely as Ukraine comfortably defeated Saudi Arabia 4-0 to rekindle their hopes of a place in the second round.

The former Dynamo Kyiv star complained that the local wildlife near the team’s training camp had been disturbing his players in the aftermath of the 4-0 loss to the Spaniards, but there were no such problems as Andriy Shevchenko and company hammered a Saudi team that struggled in the Hamburg rain.

“We took the frogs away,” said Blokhin. “The frogs that were preventing us from sleeping before the last match.”