HAMBURG - Ukraine crushed Saudi Arabia 4-0 on Monday to get their World Cup campaign back on track while Switzerland beat Togo 2-0 to end the West African side's hopes of progressing to the last 16.
Although the Saudis were disappointing in the Group H game, Ukraine still looked like a team transformed from their own 4-0 drubbing by Spain in their opening match last week.
"It's a little bit like Cinderella, the pumpkin turned into a beautiful coach and the other animals turned into wonderful horses," coach Oleg Blokhin told reporters.
"That's what happened to us today. We knew it was a decisive match and we turned things around and did a great job."
Spain are in action later on Monday, taking on Tunisia in Stuttgart.
Goals from Andriy Rusol and Serhiy Rebrov gave fired-up Ukraine a deserved 2-0 lead at halftime in Hamburg.
Andriy Shevchenko headed home an inswinging free kick a minute after the break and Shevchenko set up midfielder Maksim Kalinichenko for the fourth in the 84th minute.
Togolese Troubles
Togo's defeat was another blow for the West African side whose stay in Germany has been clouded by a players' pay dispute.
The row prompted their coach to walk out, only to return several days later, and threats of a boycott of the Switzerland match.
Striker Alex Frei put the Swiss ahead in the 16th minute of the Group G match, turning the ball into the net from close-range.
Midfielder Tranquillo Barnetta banged in a low drive off the post with two minutes to play.
The victory vaulted Switzerland into first place in the group on goal difference and means they need only avoid defeat against South Korea on Friday to be sure of a place in the second round.
France, in third place after two disappointing draws, remain in contention in the group.
The French play former colony Togo in their last game on Friday but the Togolese have no chance of going any further.
"We can't be happy but the team is here to learn and I think they put on a good show," Togo coach Otto Pfister told German television.
FIFA was forced to intervene on Sunday to persuade Togo's players to travel to Dortmund for the match after they initially refused to leave their base in Wangen until the row over pay and bonuses was settled.
Later in the day, the team announced they had settled the long-running dispute, the second time in less than a week that Togo narrowly averted a major crisis.
Less than 24 hours before their first match against South Korea, Pfister agreed to return to coach the team. He had walked out days before, saying the pay dispute made it impossible for him to do his job.
"If Togo had decided not to play that would have been scandalous. It would have done tremendous damage to the image of African football," Markus Siegler, FIFA's director of communications, told journalists.
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