Korkishko bowled over by victory
Sunday 2 August 2009
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Dmytro Korkishko (7) doubles Ukraine's lead with a curling free-kick (©sportsfile)
Dmytro Korkishko believes Ukraine's achievement in winning the UEFA European Under-19 Championship for the first time will live long in the memory.
'Unforgettable feeling'
Korkishko put in a starring performance as Ukraine defeated England 2-0 to become the first nation to lift the trophy on home soil, providing Denys Garmash with the opportunity to open the scoring from a well-placed corner in the fifth minute before curling a wonderful free-kick past Jason Steele shortly after the break for a clinching second goal. "It was an unforgettable feeling to score that goal inside a stadium full of Ukrainian supporters," he told uefa.com. "It was the first time we have had 25,000 people coming to see us play. These are the moments you live for and the reason I play football but there's no point talking about my own performance today as I don't play for myself, I play for the team."
Tireless display
The FC Dynamo Kyiv midfielder said there were no secrets to what became Ukraine's third consecutive victory in the tournament, pointing to the willingness of Yuriy Kalitvintsev's charges to press forward from the outset. "We followed the instructions of our coach and were always looking to attack; our aim was to score goal after goal," he said. "We watched our first game with England again before we came to the stadium and that helped a little. We knew we had to keep going right up until the end and that's what we did. For that reason celebrating this victory will feel even better. We're all delighted, even those who didn't manage to play today."
Bright future
Looking to the future, Korkishko acknowledged that it was perhaps too early to start thinking about breaking into Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko's senior Ukraine squad but that his team-mates deserve the opportunity to be playing regularly for their respective clubs. "It's obviously not for me to decide but I think that everybody in this team has the ability to be playing in the first team with their clubs," he explained. "I understand that it's too soon to start dreaming about the national team but for now we can start thinking about playing for the U21s."
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