It was an unexpectedly upbeat start for the cohost's home event, which is Shevchenko's last in Ukraine's yellow-and-blue uniform.
As soon as Shevchenko had scored his second goal of the evening, he knew who he had to thank. While fans shouted "Sheva! Sheva!" the veteran sprinted to the sideline and embraced coach Oleg Blokhin, who decided against the odds to play Shevchenko from the start of the match against the Swedes.
Since 2010, Shevchenko had scored only once for the national team - in a friendly against Bulgaria last year. In Ukraine's three recent Euro 2012 warm-up games, he was only brought on as a substitute after 45 minutes.
It created the impression that Blokhin would use him in the pinch rather than as a leader of the attack. But Shevchenko played 81 minutes against Sweden.
Ukraine entered the tournament as an underdog to make it to the second round, but looks to have a real chance of extending its stay past the group stage as France and England drew 1-1 in their game earlier in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Joleon Lescott had the sole English goal on his team's only shot on target a few minutes before Samir Nasri equalized.
As Nasri celebrated, he yelled " ferme ta geule [shut your mouth]" and put his finger to his lips. It was aimed at a French sportswriter who had been critical of him in an article the day before the game.
Boyd joins Rapid Vienna
United States forward Terrence Boyd is joining Austrian club Rapid Vienna from Borussia Dortmund. The German club says the 21-year-old, who scored 20 goals for Dortmund's reserves, has a three-year deal with Vienna.
U.S. vs. Guatemala
A list of places to see Tuesday's U.S. vs. Guatemala pay-per-view World Cup qualifier is at philly.com/usguatemala.
