Decorated Ukrainian Oleg Blokhin knows what pressure is like at the top level of football but even the coach of the Euro 2012 co-hosts is unsure how his side will perform against Sweden in their opening Group D match tonight.
The 59-year-old former European Footballer of the Year is experiencing his second major championships as national team coach after guiding Ukraine to the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals.
But he admitted in typically colourful style that he was not sure how the players will react to playing in front of a home crowd in a major competition.
"Yes, it's like a tornado that could throw us in an unknown direction," the former Dynamo Kiev star told uefa.com. "When I took over I immediately set the goal to win the tournament since we are the hosts. So let's split the winners' medal between Ukraine and Poland."
Blokhin, who was an outstanding player winning the European Footballer of the year accolade in 1975 when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, has not had the best of results in warm-ups.
But he said the results are irrelevant, particularly after the last reverse - a 2-0 loss to Turkey, which he blamed on 11 players being ill with food poisoning.
In contrast, Sweden's coach Erik Hamren, hardly sent an inspirational message to his squad when he declared earlier in the week that his side were the underdogs.
"Not many host countries lose their opening matches of the tournament," he said.
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