Blokhin blasts Sweden´s rearguard action

Coach Oleg Blokhin criticised Sweden’s defensive tactics after Ukraine claimed a 2-1 victory in their Euro 2012 Group D clash.

Blokhin was furious with how the Scandinavians lined up and accused them of playing for a draw on Monday.

“I think that the Swedish team played to achieve a draw and they only tried to organise counterattacks through Zlatan Ibrahimovic,” he told reporters.

The 59-year-old coach was also angry with Sweden’s goal, which came while Ukraine had a man down injured.

“In the second half I think that the Swedish team wasn’t very fair, because our player was lying on the pitch and the referee should have stopped the game.

“But they just had a chance and they scored, then there was also a second moment and I think that it’s not fair.”

Blokhin then touched on the heroics of Andriy Shevchenko, saying: “He didn’t believe that I had a dream that he would score twice.

“I think that we had an advantage in the first half, but maybe not concerning Ibrahimovic’s chance, but we had a really great advantage.

“We conceded a goal, but I must say thank you to the team that we were able to score two goals, but I think that we didn’t play good in the dying minutes, because there was a lot of pressure to hold this result.

“I think it’s really hard to play with such nerves, I must say that the Swedish team is a really good and it is very hard to play against them, we knew everything about them, but I really think that they will be a tough opponent for the next opponents in our group.”

Sweden coach Erik Hamren complained that some players had given under-par performances.

“The two teams were nervous at the start,” Hamren said.

“Then we started the second half well and scored. But unfortunately they soon levelled.

“The last 20 minutes we had nothing to lose and played well and I think a draw would have been a fair result as we had our chances.

“We knew how they would play and it was our performance which was not up to scratch. You need 11 players right on their game and we only had five or six in the first half.

“We knew the crosses would come in – and we were up against a super player (Shevchenko). Technically and tactically we did not cut it. We should have scored with the good chances we had at the end.”