However, I believe the Ukraine have more to their game than Shevchenko. Voronin is a good player and Milevsky is very promising. It will also be interesting for Spurs fans to see if Rebrov can recapture his old form if he plays alongside Shevchenko. Their partnership was one of the strongest in Europe not so long ago.

As for Switzerland, they were indeed very poor in Turkey but they’d been outstanding three days earlier in front of their own fans. I’m not a big fan of theirs and they picked up some shocking results along the way (including an abysmal performance at home against Cyprus) but they could upset France this time around two.

In any case, both teams are very similar: they struggle to create anything when the opposition play with 10 men behind the ball. Maybe Zidane’s return will be enough to give France the upper hand against Togo and South Korea, while the Swiss are likely to drop points against one of those.

Having said that, nobody expected France to struggle the way they did against Uruguay, Senegal and Denmark…

And while the Ukraine did play exceptionally well in qualifying getting past Denmark and Turkey, they really are a one man team. And i can’t see Africa not having one team not go through to the Round of 16…and Tunisia are better than people think.

But your points are valid. Thanks for writing…keep it up…..e

First of all, Switzerland were everything but lucky to finish second in their qualying group. They were on a par with France and Ireland. Admittedly, all three were abysmal but Switzerland certainly deserved to finish above France, particularly after dominating the tie in Zurich.

They also beat Turkey fair and square. Despite the incredible amount of pressure the Turks tried to put on them in the return leg, they managed to survive in one of the most hostile atmosphere imaginable in a football stadium. The fact that they didn’t just give up and let the Turks have their way is a credit to them.

They might be technically poor and not exactly pretty to watch but, for all their big name players, France have proved unable to match them, not once but twice.

I’m also surprised to read that France should meet Tunisia in the second round. Tunisia are a decent side and have a chance of reaching the last 16 but both Spain and the Ukraine appear to have the players to defeat Lemerre’s team. They are by no means assured of a second place finish and I suspect that the French staff are more worried about Shevchenko than Jaziri at the moment.