Optimism abounds as rivals rematched

Ukraine and Denmark are playing for their UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ lives at the Helsinki Football Stadium on Wednesday, but both coaches believe their sides can bounce back from opening defeats.

Defeats
Two early goals condemned Ukraine to a 2-0 loss against fellow finals debutants the Netherlands while Denmark, despite a promising start, fell 1-0 to hosts Finland. If either side lose again on Wednesday, they must hope the team that beat them win the other Group A fixture later on at the Olympic Stadium, or their hopes will be dashed.

Positivity
Still, Ukraine coach Anatoliy Kutsev declared: "There is no panic. Obviously, we lost and there will be changes, but nothing huge." His Denmark counterpart, Kenneth Heiner-Møller, was equally upbeat, adding: "I am quite positive we will be a better team [than in our opening match]. Better as a unit, the substitutes as well, and player by player. I think we have recovered well. We have seen some good things among the players and talked about the game, mostly the things we did well and can develop to do them better."

Rustiness
Kutsev admitted there were some early nerves. "A debut is a debut, at least we have done it now," he said. "Our preparations were good, but we maybe didn't play enough friendlies or maybe we had nerves and lacked match fitness. We didn't really feel the rhythm of the game, it was a little bit unexpected for us. All these reasons led to the two big mistakes we made, the unnecessary goals we conceded. But we have put them behind us."

Danish skill
These nations crossed paths twice in the same qualifying group last year, with both games producing 1-0 home triumphs. The latter in Viborg confirmed Denmark as section winners, before Ukraine followed them into the finals as play-off winners. Kutsev said: "Denmark play football close to our own game. I like the improvisation they use, I like their skills."

Ukrainian talent
Heiner-Møller was similarly generous, saying: "Ukraine are a great team with gifted players in different positions and a lot of players who played in the UEFA Women's Cup final [for Russian side Zvezda-2005]. So we have our hands full, I'm sure."

Rethink
He does, however, believe Denmark will present their upcoming opponents a different sort of challenge compared to the games last year. "I hope we will surprise Ukraine," he said. "We have done some thinking, especially about the game we played over there. We had some injuries in Ukraine and, although they are a good team, they have weaknesses and I think we've found one or two we can use."