Blokhin's side suffered a 4-0 drubbing against Spain but look back on track after seeing off the Saudis.

"It's a little bit like Cinderella. The pumpkin turned into a beautiful coach and the other animals turned into wonderful horses," he said.

"That's what happened to us. We knew it was a decisive match for us and we turned things around."

Tunisia now stand between Ukraine and a place in the knock-out stages on their debut in the World Cup finals, but Blokhin will not be taking their Group H opponents lightly.

He added: "The future is same as before. We now need to succeed against Tunisia.

"I think our chances of going all the way are not huge because there are stronger teams but we will fight."

Striker Andriy Voronin said the victory more than made amends for the heavy defeat in their opening game.

"After the 4-0 defeat against Spain, when the way we played was embarrassing, we wanted to show we can play," he said. "We had a bit of luck as well.

"Our goal is to survive the group phase. Hopefully we'll go further and then we'll see who we're up against."