The Group Six victory kept alive Ukraine's hopes of qualifying for next summer's finals in South Africa.

Andriy Yarmolenko opened the scoring for the hosts after 18 minutes and Artem Milevskiy doubled their advantage two minutes into first-half stoppage time.

Three second-half penalties then sealed the rout, the first from captain Andriy Shevchenko in the 72nd minute and then a further two in stoppage-time from Milevskiy and substitute Yevgen Seleznov.

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Croatia later restored their three-point advantage over Ukraine after winning their evening match against Belarus by a 1-0 margin.

Ivan Ratikic was Croatia's hero as Slaven Bilic's team secured the win they required to set themselves up for Wednesday's clash with England at Wembley.

Ratikic scored midway through the first half as Croatia moved to four points adrift of leaders England, having played one more match than Fabio Capello's team who have a 100% winning record from seven games.

If England beat Croatia then they cannot be caught and will qualify automatically for next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa, but Bilic's team, for now, still have distant hopes of claiming top spot.

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On Wednesday Croatia will have to cope without defender Vedran Corluka. The Tottenham man was sent off tonight, receiving his second yellow card for time-wasting, and will be suspended for the Wembley clash.