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Blokhin drained by Ukraine comeback

His side made a dream start to Group D thanks to Andriy Shevchenko, but victorious Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin had only one thing on his mind – rest, and plenty of it.

Blokhin drained by Ukraine comeback
Blokhin drained by Ukraine comeback ©UEFA.com

Oleh Blokhin, Ukraine coach
Andriy didn't believe me when I told him I had a dream he would score twice. We were the better team in the first half, apart from the [Zlatan] Ibrahimović chance [that hit the post]. Sweden played for a draw I think, they tried to counterattack through Ibrahimović. We conceded a goal but I must thank the team for coming back with two of their own.

We didn't play well in the dying minutes, we were under a lot of pressure to hold on to this result and it's really hard to play with such nerves. Sweden are a really good team – it's difficult to play them, we knew everything about them and they still gave us a tough match. I think they'll be really tough opponents for the other teams in our group. We still have two games left; today's result puts us in a good position.

I have only one wish – to go to our training base and have a rest. Everybody's very tired. We've not thought about the game with France; I don't know if I'll change the starting lineup or keep the same team. I have lots of feelings. Now I want to go and rest. Am I glad or not? I must look at the whole team. There were good moments and bad moments.

Erik Hamrén, Sweden coach
The first half wasn't good enough but both teams were really nervous – there were a lot of mistakes. We started the second half better, were more accurate and won the ball higher up and that's how we got the chance to score. Unfortunately they equalised quickly; you always know that if you score, then they score, they have the momentum. In the last 20 minutes, when we didn't have anything to lose, we played how I wanted to from the start and deserved at least a draw considering the chances we created.

I didn't see any surprises. We knew how Ukraine were going to play and they did that. For me it's more our performance. I said before the tournament that for us to win these games we need 11 players at their best. Today, in the first half, five or six showed the quality I want and that's not enough.

We didn't reach the level we wanted to and we didn't get our technique – or tactics – right in the first half. We didn't show the courage we were supposed to. It was the opening game of the EURO and we talked to the players about courage – and we had only five players who showed that from the start. It gets a lot more difficult when that happens. We didn't do what we were supposed to do, and what we can do. We were cowards in the first half.

We have to look at things; I haven't really thought about England and France that much. Our focus was on this game but we have a lot of competition for places. I'm not happy about our team now. I was expecting more and better.

If we'd won here tonight we'd have really enjoyed the next 24 hours. Now we have to grieve together, because we did this together. We have a lot to work on and a lot to talk about. The players have to forget this and think about the next game. That's how it is in football; sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and you need to be able to deal with both of them.

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