Paris stalemate satisfies Vukojević

Midfielder Ognjen Vukojević fully expects FC Dynamo Kyiv to take their place in the UEFA Cup semi-finals after they opened their last-eight contest against Paris Saint-Germain FC with a goalless draw at the Parc des Princes.

'Better team'
The Ukrainian Premier League leaders soaked up what limited pressure the home side were able to muster and even looked the brighter of the two sides at times, leaving them hopeful ahead of next Thursday's return at the Valeri Lobanovskiy Stadium. "I think 0-0 is a good result for us," Vukojević told uefa.com. "It was a hard game. We didn't score but we were very good in attack. Now we want to get the goals that will win us the second leg. I think we're the better team and we want to reach the next round."

Disciplined approach
The Croatian international even admitted to having anticipated a stronger challenge from Paul Le Guen's men. "I expected more from PSG," he explained. "We know they're quite high in the French league because they have many excellent players, but I expected them to play better than they did." As a result, the 25-year-old left Paris regretting that his side were unable to prolong their record of registering in every UEFA Cup outing this term. "I'm a little disappointed," he said. "We've scored goals in every game this season but here we played in a very disciplined way, with just [Artem] Milevskiy in attack."

Two forwards
That ought to change in the Ukrainian capital, with Artem Kravets returning to fitness and Ismaël Bangoura raring to face former Le Mans UC 72 colleague Stéphane Sessegnon if he does not recover from injury in time. "I think we'll attack from the start," stated Vukojević. "We're always favourites in Kiev and I think we'll play with two attackers and get the goals to send us through." The erstwhile NK Dinamo Zagreb player was nonetheless keen to insist that "both PSG and Dynamo have enough quality to reach the final", perhaps mindful that the French outfit recorded a goalless home stalemate with SC Braga in the previous round before triumphing 1-0 away.

Shakhtar motivation
Should the Bilo-Syni (White-Blues) prevail, however, their midfield enforcer – nicknamed the 'Croatian Gattuso' – knows exactly which team he would like to face next. "I'd like to meet Shakhtar Donetsk," he said, a few hours after the Ukrainian titleholders beat Olympique de Marseille 2-0 at home. "I think Marseille are an excellent team, a little better than PSG even, but I'd prefer Shakhtar. It would be major for Ukraine to have two teams in the semi-finals; that would be magnificent."