“Co-host Ukraine’s preparations for the tournament have been chaotic. Myron Markevych was forced to re-sign as coach in 2010 following a bribery scandal at Metalist Kharkiv, the club he continued to manage while running the national team. He had overseen four friendlies, three wins and one draw, and the sense until his departure was that everything was steadily improving. He was replaced by Yuri Kalitvintsev, who led the Under-19 side to the European Championship in 2009, but in seven months as caretaker, Ukraine won just one of eight matches. So it was Oleh Blokhin, the former star of Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kiev side, who took charge.” SI – Jonathan Wilson