(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Europa League finalists Dnipro Dnipropetrosk believe they can spring another surprise by beating holders and favourites Sevilla in Warsaw today.
Coach Myron Markevych admitted on the eve of the game he had not expected the unfancied Ukrainian outfit to go all the way to the final.
"I did not imagine we would get this far but you get more appetite when you start eating," he said.
Dnipro have eliminated Olympiakos, Ajax, Brugge and Napoli on the way to the final and now have to stop a Sevilla side aiming for a record fourth Europa League/UEFA Cup title. Sevilla are similar in style to Napoli who Dnipro put out 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals, the 64-year-old coach said.
"They have good forwards who truly create a number of moments," he said. "This is a headache for us but our defence at least until today were playing at a good level. It is important to neutralize their attacking players."
Dnipro are playing in their first European final and Markevych said:
"If I say they (the players) are not feeling nervous I would by lying, but the important thing is that when they get on the pitch they stop being nervous."
Captain Ruslan Rotan and midfielder Valeriy Fedorchuk meanwhile said the final would be like a holiday for the side and the people of Ukraine.
Rotan played down the backdrop of the war in eastern Ukraine which has accompanied Dnipro's advance to the final and led to the team playing all their home matches in Kiev, some 400 kilometres from the south-central industrial city.
"Football and politics probably don't go together well because the final is a holiday for the people primarily, Rotan said. "The most important thing is the trophy for the fans."
He added: "There is a war in the east and of course there is chaos and unhappiness. If we win tomorrow we can maybe give some joy to those people, but politics has nothing to do with it."
Fedorchuk said of the conflict in eastern Ukraine where government forces are fighting Russia-back separatists: "We always believed we were the biggest friends of Russia. Tomorrow we will play for Ukraine because we represent our country."
The team is hoping to become the third Ukrainian side to win a major UEFA trophy following Dynamo Kiev, who won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986, and Shakhtar Donetsk, the 2009 UEFA Cup winners.
"We are emotional, excited because this is the first final for Dnipro and we will try to get hold of ourselves as soon as the whistle goes," Fedorchuk said.
"We are hungry for that. The chances are 50-50. It's a holiday for us tomorrow."
Rotan said "emotions are high" and the team "already part of history" but the team would keep their emotions in check on Wednesday, thanks in no small part to coach Markevych who took over at the start of the season.
"He said we had a good team but we were too emotional. We became calmer," he said. "We acquired some sort of self-assuredness. Now psychologically we became more balanced and stopped reacting to some alien factors.
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