Early bath: Robert Green walks up the tunnel after being sent off
Raine man: Serhiy Nazarenko scores via a deflection
Fall guy: Robert Green brings down Artem Milevskiy to earn a red card
Meanwhile, already-qualified England's winning streak was ended at eight games after a 1-0 loss at Ukraine, and 2006 runner-up France was left to seek a place in the playoffs.
It was the Manchester United centre-half's terrible mistake that allowed in Artem Milevskiy in the 14th minute but there was no doubt that it was West Ham goalkeeper Green who brought down the Ukrainian.
Former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko hit the post with the resulting penalty.
But more poor defending led to Serhiy Nazarenko striking a fierce shot which Ashley Cole deflected past substitute goalkeeper David James with his head. The 29th-minute goal was enough to halt England's run of eight consecutive victories and to make Ukraine firm favourites to take the runners-up spot in Group Six behind Capello's team and ahead of Croatia. But Capello seemed more concerned about the referee's howler than his team's defeat, and protested vehemently to the fourth official.
The England manager said: 'The referee has to explain what he saw. It's a big difference between Rio and the goalkeeper - one is running, one is diving.
That's what I was speaking to the fourth official about. He told me he spoke with the referee and they said it was not Rio who made the foul. But it really was a big mistake.'
Green had already endured a difficult night before his dismissal. The FA will make a formal complaint to FIFA about the Ukraine fans who forced the referee to stop play twice as they threw flares from behind the goal England were defending.
In the opening moments, Green had to flee his penalty area to escape the danger and fans were later warned that the referee would abandon the game if they continued to hurl the missiles.
Green's sending-off gave James the chance to make his case to reclaim the position of Capello's first-choice goalkeeper. There was nothing the 39-year-old Portsmouth player could do about the Ukraine goal or a shot by Milevskiy later in the first half which came back off a post.
But in the second period James made two fine saves to prevent England falling further behind, and in the 90th minute Wayne Rooney was inches away from an equaliser. Despite the loss of his perfect record in competitive matches, Capello said he was pleased with the performance of his 10 men, especially after the break.
'I was proud of my team in the second half,' he said. 'We played really well and had the chance to draw. We had chances until the very last minute of the game. We only made one defensive mistake and it was for the penalty. Then there was a deflected shot for the goal.'
But Ashley Cole's loss of the ball on the edge of his own penalty area in the build-up to the goal was just the sort of glaring error which Capello has stressed his team must eradicate if they are to make an impressive showing at next year's World Cup.
Ferdinand and Cole may be grateful that live coverage of the match was available only on the internet, although the BBC secured a lastminute deal to show highlights of the first England game to be streamed live as a pay-per-view event.
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