Oleksandr Zinchenko concedes he was in a bad place after the disappointment of the Champions League final. It was only when he got to Ukraine camp ahead of Euro 2020 that things changed.

"I had perhaps the worst few days of my footballing life after the Champions League final," the Manchester City winger said of the 1-0 loss to Chelsea. “But I recovered so quickly because of the atmosphere in our national team."

One of the strengths of this Ukraine side heading into the Round of 16 tie with a favoured Sweden side is the camaraderie amongst the team. Manager Andriy Shevchenko hopes that a sense of brotherhood will carry his team against a Sweden squad that he says is filled with quality.

"They are a very organized team,” the 2004 Ballon d’Or winner said. “They have a certain style of play, and they always keep to it. The things they do, they do them very well, especially their vertical passes. This team is very strong physically so they almost never lose in one-on-one battles and are dangerous in the air."

Ukraine keeper Georgiy Bushchan agrees with his gaffer’s assessment that Tuesday’s opponents command respect.

"Lady Luck was kind to us [to let Ukraine qualify for the knockouts as a third-place team] and we'll try to use this second chance,” Bushchan said. “Sweden earned seven points in a very tough group. This team deserves all our respect."

Midfielder Mykola Shaparenko sees the humour in meeting a Swedish team whose help Ukraine needed in securing passage into the Round of 16. It was the Blagult’s 3-2 over Poland on Matchday 3 that ensured Ukraine would be one of the four best third-place sides.

"We supported Sweden so much [against Poland] but now, as they say, it's just business, nothing personal,” Shaparenko said. “We will play for a win. We have made history but we want to make new history now. Sweden are a tough team with a lot of character; they fight on every metre of the pitch and have some great individual players."

Veteran Sweden striker Marcus Berg says he hasn’t paid any attention to prognosticators tipping his side as the big favourites heading into Tuesday.

”For most people, perhaps we’re favourites, but we have great respect for them,” Berg said. “Of course it’s a team that we believe we can beat if we play at our best. We aim to raise our game a notch compared to our previous matches.”

Defender Ludwig Augustinsson wants Sweden to take nothing for granted.

”Ukraine is not a team that we can just assume we’ll beat,” Augustinsson said. “It will take a top performance from us. If we manage that we’ve got a good chance of winning."

Both teams are keeping their starting XIs close to the vest for Tuesday, but Shevchenko did say that Oleksandr Zubkov won’t be available for selection. The Ferencvaros midfielder limped off injured in the only the 13th minute against Netherlands in Matchday 1 and hasn’t returned since.

Historically, the Ukraine-Sweden rivalry isn’t a particularly lengthy or heated one (Ukraine is 3-0-1 against Sweden), but the two teams have met before at a Euro. As the home side at Euro 2012 against the Blagult, Ukraine fell behind 1-0 in a group-stage match in Kyiv thanks to a 52nd-minute strike from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But the home crowd would be given something to celebrate with a second-half brace by Sheva himself as Ukraine claimed a 2-1 come-from-behind win.

POTENTIAL SWEDEN XI: Olsen; Lustig, Lindelöf, Danielson, Augustinsson; S. Larsson, Ekdal, Olsson, Forsberg; Isak, Quaison

POTENTIAL UKRAINE XI: Bushchan; Karavaev, Zabarnyi, Matviyenko, Mykolenko; Malinovskyi, Sydorchuk, Zinchenko; Yarmolenko, Yaremchuk, Tsygankov