Shovkovskyi is well known for his blunder during the
UEFA Euro 2000 play-off game where the
Ukraine national team faced
Slovenia. In the 83rd minute of the first leg in
Ljubljana, Shovkovskyi came out of his goal almost to the corner flag to kick the ball away, but scuffed his kick to
Milenko Ačimovič who scored into the empty net from 40 meters out. Ukraine lost this match 2–1 and drew the second leg 1–1 and hence did not qualify for Euro 2000 in Netherlands/Belgium. Shovkovskyi was the first-choice keeper for Ukraine at the
2006 FIFA World Cup. Notably, he saved two spot kicks from
Marco Streller and
Ricardo Cabanas in the
penalty shootout against
Switzerland in their second-round match, which sent Ukraine through to the quarterfinals, becoming the first goalkeeper in
FIFA World Cup history not to concede a goal during penalty shootout (
Tranquillo Barnetta also hit the bar); Shovkovskyi was subsequently awarded the man of the match award. Also more recently Oleksandr was voted player of the tournament in early 2008, in a
Channel One Cup in Israel, which was won by Dynamo in a notorious game against the club's top rival
Shakhtar Donetsk. During this game in a series of penalty kicks, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi saved 3 kicks and almost single-handedly won the match. His
goals against average for the national team is .86 with a bit short of 100 games mark on his count (92). In September 2012, Shovkovskyi announced his retirement from the Ukraine national team. Until 2013 Shovkovskyi held the record for the Ukraine national team of minutes played without a goal, 728 minutes, but it was beaten by
Andriy Pyatov. Four years after his retirement from the game, Shovkovskyi, as an assistant to national team coach
Andriy Shevchenko and aged 45, was listed as a back-up goalkeeper for Ukraine for a friendly match away to
France on 7 October 2020 after three of the four goalkeepers in the squad tested positive for
COVID-19. ==Political views and career==