Ukraine hoping for farewell flourish

With zero points on the board and their flights home already booked, Ukraine go into their final Group A match against Finland on Saturday eager, in the words of playmaker Nataliya Zinchenko, to prove that they "didn't come here for nothing".

Encouraging promise
Anatoliy Kutsev's side are making their debut at a UEFA European Women's Championship, but despite showing encouraging promise in their 2-0 defeat by the Netherlands and their subsequent 1-0 loss to Denmark, those results have guaranteed that they will finish bottom in the section. Hosts Finland have won both their outings to be confirmed as group winners, meanwhile, yet Zinchenko maintains that she and her team-mates will approach the match with their heads held high.

'Good spirit'
"Our chance has gone, but we will try to win our last game in order to prove we didn't come here for nothing," she said. "We haven't analysed Finland. Each of the players has watched their two games and drawn their own conclusions about their strengths. We'll go into this match in a good spirit."

High expectations
The 29-year-old feels her team were slightly unfortunate to come away from their opening encounters with nothing. "We were unlucky," she said. "Maybe we wanted to win so much we found it hard to express ourselves. But we lost our first two games and, therefore, we're going home. I was expecting much more from this final tournament, but there's no pressure on us now. Everything is going smoothly."

Parting intentions
Goalkeeper Iryna Zvarych is anticipating another testing occasion for Ukraine when they take on the 2005 semi-finalists, but she also hopes to bid farewell to Finland on a positive note. "It's really hard to play any game at a final tournament because this is the first time we've made it to the EURO," she explained. "We'll just try to be relaxed and play to our full potential. We'll do our best to win because it would be good to leave Finland on a high."