UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying, Ukraine, assigned in Group 4, finished above Russia, thanks to an important draw in Moscow and a home victory, but still only qualified for the playoff behind the French side despite being undefeated. Ukraine then fell to Slovenia 3–2 on aggregate. Following the qualification campaign, the Federation finally signed a contract with Valery Lobanovsky, ending the Sabo's tenure as a head coach. The 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification saw Ukraine in Group 5. With Lobanovsky as a head coach there were expectations of the first qualification to the finals. Yet, Ukraine suffered a home loss to Poland in their opening match, and a number of draws had resulted in Ukraine qualifying for the playoff again, losing to Germany, 5–2 on aggregate. Under a public pressure, particularly the Higher League head coaches who argued that the national team head coach cannot competently serve for both club and national, as well as health issues of Lobanovsky himself, the Federation decided not to renew contract with Lobanovsky letting him concentrate on Dynamo Kyiv. In UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying, Ukraine with the new head coach and another former Dynamo Kyiv star Leonid Buryak was assigned into Group 6, with Spain and Greece. Ukraine failed to qualify. 2006 FIFA World Cup After Euro 2004 qualifying, Ukraine appointed Oleg Blokhin as the national team's head coach. Seeded at the Group 2 Ukraine went on to qualify as a group winners for their first-ever FIFA World Cup on 3 September 2005 after drawing 1–1 against Georgia in Tbilisi and ahead of Turkey, Denmark and the last campaign rivals Greece among others. This also was the first successful qualification campaign for Ukraine despite a poor home turf performance. In the 2006 World Cup, they were in the Group H with Spain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. After losing 4–0 in the first match against Spain, the Ukrainians won the next two matches to face Switzerland in the round of 16. Tying at 0, Ukraine managed to take Switzerland to penalty shoot-out where two saves from Oleksandr Shovkovsky secured a positive outcome for his side despite the first kick miss by Andriy Shevchenko. Switzerland that did not lose or yield a single goal was sent home early with Ukraine advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals Ukraine facing Italy was defeated with the second half two goals from Luca Toni securing a comfortable 3–0 win for