Ukraine's skipper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Poland-c2983, brought a lot of joy for his compatriots despite the fact that their team crashed out of the event in
the group stages.
The Yellow-Blues got their Euro campaign off to an electric start, as they stunned http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sweden-c3015 2-1 after the former AC Milan talisman netted two goals for his team.
However, they then suffered back to back defeats against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749, which smashed their dream of progressing into the knock stage of the competition in their debut appearance in the glamorous European event.
Despite failing to cross the first hurdle in the tournament, Shevchenko viewed Euro 2012 as a huge success for his country, pointing out that hosting one of the grandest events in football had brought a lot of joy on the faces of the country’s populace.
He told the reporters in an interview, “Ukraine have won as a country, even though we didn't qualify for the quarter-finals. We gave all 48 million inhabitants of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032 a feeling they never experienced before. It was a new feeling for the people, and I
think it was something extraordinary for them. It was a very historic moment.”
The 35-year old has featured in 111 games for Ukraine since 1995, and scored 48 goals during this period.
Talking of his country’s opening match against Sweden, in which the striker headed home 2 goals for his team to help them secure a comeback from behind win, Shevchenko mentioned that the win meant something a lot more than just football to him. He divulged
that he had scored a lot of goals in his career, and even though his brace was not good enough to help them go through into the next round, the goals were without doubt the most special ones that he had ever scored.
He added, “It really meant something to the country. Those goals were perhaps not the most important ones I ever scored, but no goals mean as much to me.”
Following the culmination of his Euro campaign, Shevchenko announced his retirement from international football.
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