The Ukrainian boss says his team's magnificent run on the continent has surprised even him, but he has grown increasingly hungry for success with every win.
Dnipro coach Myron Markevych says his club has developed an appetite for Europa League glory as their exhaustive continental campaign comes to a thrilling climax with Wednesday’s final against Sevilla in Warsaw.
The Ukrainian side, who play only 26 matches as part of their regular Premier League season, have already negotiated 19 games in Europe on their way to a surprise final appearance having entered Champions League at the third qualifying round, dropping into the Europa League from there.
But Markevych insisted that his men are hungry for success having reached the first major continental final in the club’s history.
“It would not be frank of me to say we were expecting to reach the final, but the more you eat the greater your appetite becomes," he told reporters.
"As soon as we beat Olympiakos in the round of 32, I started to believe."
Due to political difficulties, Dnipro have also been forced to play all of their European games away from Dnipropetrovsk, with home matches being held over 240 miles away in Kiev. And the 64-year-old insists it is no mean feat for his players to have reached the final considering the issues that come with constant travel.
“It is true that it’s not easy playing away from home. We have been flying a lot,” he added.
“Initially it was very difficult. Moreover few supporters were coming and we were playing in a big stadium and that depressed us a little bit. But then when we got to the quarter-final against Brugge we had a lot of supporters, and in semi-finals against Napoli there were more than 60,000 spectators which felt much better.”
Captain Ruslan Rotan hopes that a Dnipro win over Sevilla will help to bring some much-needed joy to his troubled home country.
“In my opinion, football and politics probably don’t go well together. Football is a holiday for the people primarily,” said the 33-year-old.
“The trophy is the most important thing. Maybe with the war in the east people are deprived of emotions and there is chaos, but hopefully if we win tomorrow we will give some joy to those people.”
Midfielder Valeriy Fedorchuk added: "What is happening in the Donbass is not good for my country, We have always believed we are big friends with Russia. Tomorrow we will be playing for Ukraine because we represent our country."
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