The Ukrainians took advantage of Saudi Arabia’s questionable defending at set-pieces as Rusol steered Maksym Kalinichenko’s corner from the right past Mabrouk Zaid with his knee just four minutes into the game.

And while Redha Tukar almost levelled immediately with a half-volley, it was the Ukrainians who looked the more likely to add to the scoring.

The Saudis looked panicked whenever Ukraine pushed forward and one hasty punch clear from Zaid – while under no pressure – fell to Andriy Voronin whose left-foot shot drifted over the top.

Andriy Shevchenko then came agonisingly close to doubling Ukraine’s lead in the 13th minute when he met another excellent Kalinichenko corner with a powerful header, but Ahmed Dokhi blocked his shot on the line.

Shevchenko fired off another effort eight minutes later but this time his attempt from long range was straight at Zaid.

Ahmed Dokhi down the right side presented Saudi Arabia’s biggest threat and it was from his attempted cross that Rusol almost inadvertently cancelled out his own opener, deflecting the Al Ittihad full-back’s cross narrowly wide.

Just before the half hour the 29-year-old charged forward again, this time unleashing a long-range effort that sailed over Oleksandr Shovkovskyi’s crossbar.

With nine minutes to go to the break, however, the Ukrainians doubled their lead as Rebrov let fly from more than 35 yards with a right-foot effort that beat Zaid, who slipped as he tried to change direction.

Voronin should have increased the Eastern European side’s advantage further one minute before the interval when an abysmal attempt to clear by Hamad Al Montashari fell at the forward’s feet but his shot was pulled across the face of goal.