 Croatia vs. Ukraine Croatia -- Ukraine 2:0 (1:0) Date of Match: October 29, 1997 (18:00 HRS) Place of Match: Zagreb, Croatia Stadium: N/A Attendance: 20,000 Referee: SARS (FRA) Assistant Referees: N/A Scorers: Slaven Bilic (Croatia) '11, Goran Vlaovic (Croatia) '49 Cautions: Croatia: Mario STANIC, Slaven BILIC Ukraine: Yurij Maksymov Line-ups: Croatia: 1-Drazen Ladic; 3-Robert Jarni, 6-Slaven Bilic, 8-Robert Prosinecki, 9-Davor Suker, 10-Zvonimir Boban (24-Krunoslav Jurcic, 67), 13-Mario Stanic (7-Aljosa Asanovic, 59), 15-Danijel Saric, 19-Goran Vlaovic (21-Igor Cvitanovic, 83), 20-Dario Simic, 25-Goran Juric (Coach: Miroslav Blazevic) Ukraine: 1-Olexander Shovkovsky, 2-Yuri Dmytrulin, 3-Viktor Skrypnyk, 4-Olexander Koval, 5-Vladyslav Vashchuk, 6-Andriy Gusin, 7-Yuri Maksymov (15-Ivan Hetsko 86), 8-Serhiy Nahornyak (17-Hennady Zubov 60), 9-Vitaly Kosovsky, 10-Serhiy Atelkin (14-Dmytro Mykhailenko, 53), 11-Serhiy Rebrov (Coach: Joseph Sabo) Available, but unused, substitutes: Croatia: Nikola JURCEVIC, Nikola JERKAN, Marjan MRMIC, Tonci GABRIC Ukraine: Ilia BLIZNIUK, Mikhail STAROSTYAK, Serhij POPOV, Serhij BEZHENAR GAME REVIEW: ZAGREB, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Croatia moved a step closer to clinching a place in the World Cup finals for the first time after beating an unimpressive Ukraine 2-0 in the first leg of their European zone play-off on Wednesday. Defender Slaven Bilic settled Croatian nerves after 11 minutes when he firmly headed home a deep cross by midfielder Robert Prosinecki. The victory was cemented four minutes into the second half when Valencia's Goran Vlaovic latched on to a superb pass from Davor Suker and finished calmly. Croatia dominated the match but could not force the third goal that would have eased their trip to Kyiv on November 15. But coach Miroslav Blazevic was confident his team had done enough. "This result almost guarantees that we will travel to France," he said. Croatia will be weakened for the return leg by the absence of captain Zvonimir Boban of AC Milan and Everton's Bilic. Boban was injured and Bilic picked up his second booking. "Bilic is one of our key players and his absence will be a great handicap for us," Blazevic said. Ukraine showed some initiative after conceding the first goal and Croatia goalkeeper Drazen Ladic was forced to make a series of blocks after a fierce goalmouth scramble. But it was the hosts in control most of the time. Danijel Saric's shot after half-an-hour was well saved by Ukraine goalkeeper Olexander Shovkovsky and he had to stretch to tip over a deflected, looping effort by Vlaovic soon after. Prosinecki shot over when well placed in the 70th minute and Shovkovsky saved another close-range effort from Suker a minute from time. Sergey Atelkin of Ukraine moves in for a late tackle on Croatia's Goran
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