JOE’s Euro 2012 Man of the Day: Andriy Shevchenko

There had been some competition for the man of the day winner in the opening three days, but yesterday, there was absolutely no contest.

In a brilliant interview with Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian prior to Euro 2012, Ukrainian captain Andriy Shevchenko made the following revelation.

"For the last five years I've hardly thought about anything but the European Championship that will be held in my country. It's fair to say this has extended my career. It's my dream," he said.

Never in the wildest of those dreams, however, could Shevchenko have imagined the perfect start that he and his country would make to a tournament in which they are deemed to be the second worst team, ranked ahead of only co-hosts Poland in the FIFA standings.

Coming into the tournament, Shevchenko himself, despite his God-like status in his homeland, wasn’t even guaranteed a place in the starting line-up and faced the ignominy of being benched while Liverpool flop Andriy Voronin made the starting line-up.

As it turned out, both players started against Sweden and despite being far from the man he used to be at 35 years of age, Sheva made the difference with Ukraine’s equaliser and winner in a glorious seven-minute spell in the early stages of the second half.

And it wasn’t like they were tap-ins either. His first, after 55 minutes, three minutes after the mercurial Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring for Sweden, came when he was surrounded by Swedish defenders in the area.

His second, just after the hour mark, brought to mind Roy Keane’s goal for Manchester United against Juventus in the 1999 Champions League semi-final. A real captain’s effort.

Apart from a few Chelsea fans still annoyed at his lack of impact at Stamford Bridge, there aren't many football fans whose hearts wouldn't have been warmed by the sight of Shevchenko's heroics last night and is he is the worthiest winner yet of our McCoy's Man of the Day award.

Sheva, our hats are doffed to you.