Tournament fortunes often turn on individual moments of magic or folly and Sweden’s exit from the European Championship on Tuesday was down to the latter.

Just as The Netherlands authored their own demise against the Czech Republic when Matthijs de Ligt handled the ball in Budapest on Sunday, so Sweden bought their own early ticket home some 48 hours later against Ukraine in Glasgow.

The dismissal of Marcus Danielson nine minutes into extra time, for a studs-up, high challenge that might not have been malicious but still injured his opponent and was clearly a red-card offence, turned the game in favour of unconvincing opponents who squeezed past 2-1.

The final whistle at Hampden Park was met with wild scenes of celebration as Ukraine reached the last eight of a major tournament for only the second time, after they made the quarters at the 2006 World Cup. Andriy Shevchenko’s team will now meet England in the quarter-final in Rome on Saturday.

The two sides were level at 1-1 after 90 minutes following goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Sweden’s in-form Emil Forsberg but the tide changed when Sweden defender Danielson was sent off.

The game-changing tackle, which appeared to cause serious damage to the knee of Artem Besedin, could not have come at a worse time for the Swedes. Down to 10 men, they abandoned their attacking plans and took the decision to hold out for a shootout.

They almost got there in a nervy rear-guard effort.

Ukraine were surprisingly timid in taking on a weakened opponent until Artem Dovbyk, who had just come on, headed home from close range right at the end.

One of the absurdities of tournament football is how far you can get without actually producing any convincing performances. Ukraine lost twice in the group phase, to both The Netherlands and Austria, and it was only a 2-1 win over rookies North Macedonia that provided them with a pass into the knockout stage.

But England would be well advised not to take them lightly. Shevchenko said his team would not be intimidated by England’s 2-0 win over Germany but motivated to produce an upset on Saturday.

“England are a great team, they have a deep bench, an outstanding coaching staff and we are fully aware how tough this game is going to be,” Shevchenko told a news meet.

“It should motivate us because everything is possible in football as in life and we will play our hearts out to give our fans even more to cheer about.”

Ukraine are still in the competition and most certainly hoping there might be more moments that go their way.