Roman Yaremchuk's special finish re-invigorated Ukraine's Euro 2024 campaign as they came from behind to beat Slovakia 2-1 and give their last 16 hopes a major boost on Friday.
The team from the war-ravaged nation did remarkably well to even reach the finals and a determined response to falling behind to Ivan Schranz's header was rewarded with Mykola Shaparenko's equalizer early in the second half.
Yaremchuk then expertly controlled a ball dropping over his head and prodded home 10 minutes from time.
Francesco Calzona's Slovakia would have been through to the knock-out stages with a second win after the shock opening victory over Belgium, but a second last 16 Euro qualification as an independent country after 2016 is now in the balance.
Romania face bottom side Belgium in their second Group E game on Saturday and also have three points like Ukraine and Slovakia.
Schranz netted the opener with a clever downward header at the far post on 17 minutes after Slovakia had made by far the brighter start.
Ukraine goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin, who replaced Real Madrid's Andriy Lunin after his errors in the first 3-0 loss to Romania, had been forced into two early save from Schranz and Lukáš Haraslín.
More German rain - a feature of recent matches - fell on Düsseldorf but Ukraine got a foothold, with Mykhailo Mudryk going close and Oleksandr Tymchyk hitting the post.
Ukraine then deservedly levelled on 54 minutes. Shaparenko finished off a fine team move, which started on the edge of Ukraine's box.
Both sides then tired before Yaremchuk struck.
