Sidelined Stepanenko urges Ukraine to bounce back

Injury means Ukraine captain Taras Stepanenko's tournament is already over, but he told his team-mates to raise their game after stumbling at the first hurdle in the competition.

The FC Shakhtar Donetsk holding player limped out after 54 minutes of Sunday's 2-1 defeat by the Czech Republic with the recurrence of a groin problem that had made him a major doubt for this UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Though the 21-year-old will not feature in his side's remaining Group B fixtures, he demanded his colleagues continue to strive to qualify for the semi-finals without him.

"We still have two matches to play. We had some promising attacks and made some good chances in the second half after Maxym Biliy came on," said Stepanenko. "There wasn't much missing. Maybe this loss will only unite us. We are in no position to give up."

After matching the Czechs in a keenly contested opening 45 minutes, it was Stepanenko's Czech counterpart, Bořek Dočkal, who capped two well-worked moves with high-quality finishes soon after the restart to put his team in command. Ondřej Čelůstka had a header cleared off the line by Bohdan Butko as the Czechs threatened to increase their advantage, but Jakub Dovalil's men endured an anxious wait for the final whistle once Biliy reduced the deficit on 87 minutes.

The FC Zorya Luhansk striker even came desperately close to earning a point, only to shoot narrowly wide after cleverly creating space for himself. "In the end, we had two or three chances and could have saved the game," said Biliy, who added that the squad would do their homework ahead of Wednesday's meeting with England in Herning.

"Now we have to analyse the game and look at our mistakes in order not to make them again. We'll play better against England than in the first one. We've got no room for manoeuvre. We'll fight on the pitch to get two victories."

Ukraine centre-back Yaroslav Rakitskiy also saw enough positives in 90 minutes in Viborg to stay upbeat about his side's chances. "I think we played with enough controlled aggression. It's just that the Czechs took their chances," said the FC Shakhtar Donetsk man. "Our next group rivals [England and Spain] are the same as the Czechs. It's just us, we need to take our chances. We were better than the Czechs by a head, but luck was simply not on our side."