In March 1994, Ukraine paid Israel a visit, but lost the game with a single penalty kick. Next there was a home game against Belarus where Ukraine finally won 3-1 after coming from behind at half-time. Just before their first official international competition game which was scheduled to be played against Lithuania at home, they played couple of away games against Bulgaria and the United Arab Emirates which both ended in a 1–1 draw. Another tour was scheduled right afterwards to Lithuania and Korea, the national coached by Kyivan Anatoliy Byshovets. The opening game on 7 September against Lithuania, considering their last encounter, was expected to end positively, which however resulted in a 0–2 defeat. Both goals were scored within a couple of minutes in the middle of the second half by Hamburger SV striker Valdas Ivanauskas. The national team headed off to Korea without Bazylevych and his assistants whom were Mykola Pavlov and Vladimir Muntyan. Ukraine played two games and lost both. On 20 September 1994, Oleh Bazylevych was highly criticized at the federation's coaching meeting but was to be kept in position at the next meeting of the FFU Executive Committee a few days later. However, the following day Bazylevych resigned accusing Bannikov of being tactless. On 24 September 1994, the Football Federation of Ukraine appointed Yozhef Sabo as an acting head coach until the end of the year.