Denmark flourish under pressure

Denmark left it late to secure victory in their second UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ Group A game against Ukraine, but Maiken Pape's 87th-minute goal ensured they got off the mark and winning coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller was delighted by how they responded to the pressure. Camilla Sand Andersen's earlier goal had been cancelled out by Daryna Apanaschenko, but Ukraine coach Anatoliy Kutsev, whose team are now out regardless of Saturday's result against section winners Finland, admitted the finals debutants tired late on.

Kenneth Heiner-Møller, Denmark coach
I think this was a deserved win, but also a necessary win. Ukraine will always cause problems, they are a great counterattacking team. Sometimes, we made them look good on the counterattack because we lost the ball a little bit too easily. Of course I'm satisfied with the win, now we are in the tournament. There was pressure and the worst thing you can do as a coach is to ignore the pressure. You tell the players that we have to let go, if we are too tentative we are not able to play our passing game. After 20 minutes, we started to look more of a unit, moving the ball well to one another, but if Camilla hadn't scored it could have been more tense once again.

At half-time we talked about how the first period went, there was more space between the Ukraine players so we had to play the ball earlier and attack the space behind the defence. That's a thing we have to do better, if there isn't any space we have to make space. I think the rain [in the second half] helped us a little bit because it meant the ball was moving a little bit faster.

Camilla Sand Andersen, Denmark midfielder & Carlsberg Player of the Match
I'm so happy, I can't describe it right now! It's a great feeling and it's what we worked for. Of course, we didn't win the first match, we didn't have points and it was important to get points. There was pressure on us, we had to score, we had to win. The coach told us to let go and play our game and enjoy it and I think we did that today. When we got that goal we felt more confident and we have to play that way all the time.

Anatoliy Kutsev, Ukraine coach
I would like to say what may be a simple thing: there are no miracles in football. We are the newcomers, and that's one of the reasons why in the first games we were nervous, the girls forgot the basics. Today it was a completely different team, in the dressing room I said a big thank you to the team, they had a very good game, but again we don't have tournament experience. We created a lot of chances, if we had taken a least a couple of them it could have been a different result.

We prepared very carefully, we knew Denmark from qualifying and there were no surprises. It's obvious we didn't play enough friendlies before the tournament so match fitness was not there. The girls gave 100 per cent but in the middle of the second half they dropped a little bit physically. [Striker] Oksana Yakovyshyn is 16, she is a newcomer to this level and I was very satisfied with her performance. She's a real find for our team, a great talent, and in future years she will be a top-class player. Today, this level was a bit much for her, she was a bit tired, that was why she was substituted.