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Poland and Israel have reached the final of the four-team Valery Lobanovsky tournament after Poland beat Serbia 3-2 on Monday and Israel beat hosts Ukraine on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
The two winners will meet in the final on Wednesday evening.
Thomas Frankowski scored twice to help the Poles overcome a determined Serbian side.
Ukraine, its attacks repeatedly thwarted by a solid Israeli defence, lost out on penalties when Andrei Gusin missed the only spotkick in the shootout after the teams battled to a goalless draw.
"We are of course disappointed to lose a match in which we held the advantage," Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said afterwards.
Ukraine were without European Footballer of the Year Andrei Shevchenko and Andrei Voronin, but Blokhin kept the result in perspective.
"On the whole though, I'm happy with the performance of my players. Penalties amount to a lottery. The main thing is to prepare as best we can for our qualifiers."
The competition is staged in memory of the Ukrainian coach Valery Lobanovsky who died in 2002 aged 63 and is being used by the four competitors as part of their preparations for next month's World Cup qualifiers.
| Source: Reuters | Aug.17.2005 |
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