Ukraine won all the matches on their way to winning their second consecutive gold medal in the Football 7-a-side tournament at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. The Ukrainians defeated their neighbors from Russia in a nerve-wracking final match that was decided by two moments of brilliance from captain Volodymyr Antonyuk, who scored twice in additional time to deny Russia.

Lasha Murvanadze scored for Russia deep into additional time, but it was too little, too late as they have to settle with the silver in what becomes their fourth consecutive Football 7-a-side medal at the Paralympics, after their silver in Atlanta 1996, gold in Sydney 2000 and bronze in Athens 2004.

Prior to that match, both Ukraine and Russia had won all their matches and proved to be one step above the rest of the teams in the competition.

Russia showed their main strengths in their fast style, long range shots and a great array of options at set-pieces, while Ukraine played attractive offensive football, based on a constant exchange of passes between their talented forwards.

The bronze medal went to Iran, a team that has been showing great improvement over the last few years. They finished in second place at the last World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2007 and on Tuesday they made history as they took home their first ever Paralympic medal in Football 7-a-side.

They did so by defeating Brazil 4-0 with a brilliant Abdolreza Karimzadeh and a late strike by Moslem Akbari.

Brazil saw their run of two consecutive Paralympic Games with medals in Football 7-a-side interrupted after they finished their campaign with three consecutive defeats (to Russia in their last preliminary round match, to Ukraine in the semifinals and to Iran in the Bronze medal match).