Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin was so nervous about his team's penalty shoot-out against Switzerland on Monday that he retreated to the dressing room and did not even know that his best player had missed one.

"I went into the changing room, I couldn't take it anymore," Blokhin told reporters.

Ukraine won 3-0 in the shoot-out but started off badly when striker and captain Andriy Shevchenko had his shot saved.

Blokhin was blissfully unaware of this even after the game.

"Did Shevchenko score or not?" he asked reporters who wanted to know what he thought of the miss by Chelsea's new signing.

"It's not a joke, I really didn't see it."

Shevchenko also had a penalty saved in the Champions League final in 2005 when his side, Milan, lost to Liverpool.

It was a tight match with few chances for either side on Monday but Blokhin dismissed suggestions his team were tense and had played unattractive football.

"The main thing is that the team gets a result," he said. "The teams were very equal. We just had more luck, like Russian roulette."

Artem Milevsky, Serhiy Rebrov and Oleg Gusev made sure Ukraine went through as the Swiss missed three penalties to become the first team to fail to score in a World Cup shoot-out.

Shevchenko was relieved to go through to the last eight.

"I've shot a lot of penalties in my life and every once in a while you miss one," he said.

"It's a big day for the whole team, a big day for Ukraine," said the striker.