Khomukha: 'We've won nothing yet'

Russia coach Dmitri Khomukha told his victorious side they have "won nothing yet" after securing a place in the 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final by defeating Sweden in a penalty shoot-out.

Spot-kick hero Ramil Sheydaev told UEFA.com he had not expected to even be in Slovakia after being called up as emergency cover, while Sweden coach Roland Larsson drew on the positives of his country's first-ever U17 finals appearance.

Dmitri Khomukha, Russia coach
My emotions are extremely positive now. We missed quite a lot of scoring chances because this tournament is quite long and you need a lot of physical strength to be successful. Our resources are not endless. The boys were just a bit tired. I don't think the red card influenced our game in a bad way. We didn't change our style, we just had problems converting our opportunities. We created chances but were not effective enough in attack. 

The final is never easy as it is always a duel between the two best teams in the tournament. That is why it will be an extremely tough game, from the first minute until the last. There is not a lot of time to celebrate. We have to recover and get ready for the deciding match. We have not won anything yet.

Anton Mitryushkin, Russia goalkeeper
It was such a difficult game. We are so happy with this victory. It was extremely stressful. But a very great match. I was nervous taking my penalty kick, but I just came up to the ball and took the shot. From the start I thought that I would just go for power. We did not take our chances in the game. We had moments when we should have scored, but just did not take them. But nothing terrible happened, as we won on penalties. It ended well. 

We had not practiced penalties, the ones who stepped up just wanted to do it. I did not know how to predict where the opponents would shoot - just tried to work it out off the top of my head. We played against Italy in the group stage, and that is a big plus. We know their strengths and weak spots. We will do all we can to win the final.

Ramil Sheydaev, Russia forward
I did not expect to be here, but that is how things turned out. I am so delighted with his victory. We are in the final now, and there is one step, the most important one, ahead of us. We could not use our numerical advantage during the game, but that is football. It just happened like that - we just did not take our chances well.

I cannot say anything about Italy as I have not played against them myself. We will analyse our opponents and try to get familiar with them. The coaches will tell us everything. I do not know if you can call me a penalty specialist. I do it quite a lot in training sessions and I am confident when it comes to taking a shot. We decide ourselves who will take the penalties. Khomukha trusts us, and that is about it.

Roland Larsson, Sweden coach
It was a heroic performance from us. I cannot tell you how proud I am of the boys as they were fighting all the time, even with ten players. It was a really good game. It makes you ten years older as a coach. We are satisfied with the tournament, but we are disappointed with the penalty kicks of course. That is the way it is. You never know about penalties. 

I think we played excellently in the first half. We had to score. I think we also started well in the second half, but we didn't score. That was unlucky, because if we had, it might have been 1-0 after 80 minutes. But I'm satisfied with the boys. They played really well, and the progress in their play for this first tournament is fantastic. We are very proud.

We practiced penalties today. But with penalties you never know, you get a lot of nerves. Sometimes you change your mind about where you're going to put the ball. That's always like that. It's like a lottery when you have penalties.