Ukraine make their World Cup finals debut against Spain in Leipzig's Zentralstadion on Wednesday.

However, they may have to do so without their talismanic captain Andriy Shevchenko, who is still struggling to recover from the knee injury he suffered during his final appearance for AC Milan.

The 29-year-old striker, who has since joined Chelsea in a British record transfer, made a goalscoring return to action as a second-half substitute in last week's 3-0 friendly victory against Luxembourg.

Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin was delighted to see his main man back out on the field, but is not entirely convinced a 30-minute run-out against lowly Luxembourg is adequate preparation for the test posed by facing one of European football's traditional powers.

"We'll just have to see over the next few days," said Blokhin.

"If he is not ready then we will play without him. With Shevchenko, Ukraine is one team and without him it is a completely different one."

On paper Spain's star-studded line-up is a daunting debut opponent for Ukraine, but the form of the two teams in World Cup qualifying suggests otherwise.

Blokhin's men were the first European side to qualify for the finals despite being drawn in a group alongside Turkey, Denmark and Euro 2004 winners Greece.

In contrast, Luis Aragones' Spain could only finish second behind Serbia & Montenegro in their group and had to secure their place in Germany with a play-off victory against Slovakia.

Despite struggling during qualifying Spain are unbeaten in over 20 matches and that is partly down to Aragones' adventurous approach.

He favours playing three strikers and in Valencia's David Villa and Atletico Madrid's Fernando Torres he has two of Europe's brightest young forward talents at his disposal.

It was thought the withdrawn striker's role would go to Spain's record goalscorer Raul, but the coach has hinted it will instead be filled by Liverpool's Luis Garcia.

Until recently leaving Raul on the bench would have been considered sacrilege by the Spanish public, but the Real Madrid star suffered a serious knee injury last term and was a pale imitation of the great striker he once was on his return to action.

Ukraine are still searching for their first win against Spain, having drawn one and lost one of their previous meetings, but if Shevchenko is passed fit they will be confident of starting their World Cup campaign with a victory.

Whatever the result in Leipzig, both Blokhin and Aragones will expect their teams to reach the last 16, as Tunisia and Saudi Arabia are their other Group H opponents.