Kutsev delighted with Ukraine display

Bottom may have beaten top when Group A rivals Ukraine faced hosts Finland at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium on Saturday, but victorious coach Anatoliy Kutsev was adamant that the result was anything but a surprise, claiming his side were equal to any other team in the tournament as they now prepare to return home. Finland coach Michael Käld was keen to concentrate on the positive signs for his team, meanwhile, blaming their inability to bury their chances for the outcome.

Anatoliy Kutsev, Ukraine coach
First of all, I'd like to thank my players again. We played well today, at a good level and we showed the best of our skills. We're very satisfied by how we played against Finland.

All the teams in our group were at about the same level, so no result between these teams could count as a surprise. At this stage of the competition, there are no small teams. The team that wins is the one that prepares the best and makes no mistakes. We'd also like to thank the people who watched the game today – they really helped us a lot.

Lyudmyla Pekur, Ukraine winger & Carlsberg Player of the Match
We prepared very well for this match. We wanted to show everyone that we have good skills and that we're not the worst team in this tournament. We're very disappointed because we have to leave Finland now. When we prepared for this championship, we should have played more friendlies against teams at a good level. If we'd done that, we would have performed better. I wanted to pass the ball [when I hit the crossbar in the first half].

Michael Käld, Finland coach
We knew that this game would be very tough for us because Ukraine were going home afterwards and they're the sort of team that wants three points to go back with. But in this game there were also good things for us: the first one was that today we created four or five great chances, and when you create chances like that you just have to score. But we weren't lucky with that today. The second thing that was good was that a lot more of my players got on the field today and they know what it is to play in a European championship. That's a very important experience for them.

OK, then there are things I'm not so satisfied with. Today our pressing of the Ukraine team was not as tight as in the game against Denmark. The team was too spread out and there were lots of one-on-one situations and we couldn't create as many two-on-one situations as in the other games. Plus I'm not satisfied with the result.