Kalitvintsev toasts Ukraine triumph

Yuriy Kalitvintsev was enjoying a champagne moment after guiding Ukraine to victory in the 8th UEFA European Under-19 Championship final, admitting that although the performance could have been better, the result could hardly have been improved as the hosts triumphed in Donetsk. The 2-0 defeat brought back unpleasant memories for England's Brian Eastick – part of the coaching staff of the team that also lost in the European U21 Championship final in Sweden five weeks ago – although the coach was generous in his praise for the victors, acknowledging that the better team had won.

Yuriy Kalitvintsev, Ukraine coach
We've had a real spirit throughout the whole championship. We started to improve after the second half of our first game against Slovenia. We believed in our power and talent and we believed we could win the tournament when we got to the semi-finals. The pressure from the fans made us a bit nervous in the first match but game by game we improved and played good football. I'm very grateful to all our fans. Ukraine don't play in a final every day and some of the players were a little bit nervous. They made some mistakes; in the group game against England we looked better. No matter what people think, I'm happy for my team to make mistakes and play badly if they win all the time, like they have today.

We've been constantly drinking champagne from the cup and we keep pouring more into it so I don't know how much champagne the trophy can contain. This is only a youth trophy and adult cups can take more champagne! The best player in the whole tournament is our whole team. Each generation has a chance at senior football – everything depends on how you use it. I'm sure these guys will succeed in senior football, they'll certainly do their best.

Brian Eastick, England coach
The best team won on the day. The extra time in the semi-final against France took its toll physically, we looked very tired today. We're in pre-season and we have got better but we needed another day to recover probably – the extra time definitely took it out of us. To concede the first goal so quickly was exactly the same as in our group game. When you concede that early it puts you on the back foot and we'd spoken about getting on the front foot. At 1-0 at half-time I didn't think we'd played particularly well and thought we could improve in the second half but the timing of the second goal knocked the stuffing out of us.

It's déjà vu, it's the same dressing room that was in Sweden a few weeks ago – one that is bitterly disappointed and physically exhausted. Over the 90 minutes we have no complaints, Ukraine were the better side. Once they scored very early in each half, psychologically they're good times to score – and once the second goal went in, physically and mentally we struggled. We have had a lot of problems and it's great credit to my players that we reached the final, but Ukraine deserved to win today and good luck and congratulations to them. Well done to Ukraine, they're worthy winners.