Sweden coach Kostas Flevarakis praised his side after they defeated Ukraine 81-71.

Ukraine only trailed by three points at the end of the third quarter, however Sweden managed to rally in the final period to pull away and claim a vital win.

"The big key to our win was our very good defence and that we did not give up when they came close after our big lead," Flevarakis told PA Sport.

"It was a very big win. Sometimes during the game we felt we had a lot of problems which we were able to solve." 

Despite being bottom of Group A, the Swedes are level on seven points with Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Sweden's forward Fredrik Jonzen felt his team were always going to win the game, even after the Ukrainians powerful surge in the third.

"They played a zone defense in the entire second half. The key to beat that is to get the ball to Martin Ringstrom and that opened everything up," the forward said.

Sweden came into the qualifying stages as underdogs as they have not taken part in the EuroBasket since 2003 when they hosted it and finished last.

But since Greek coach Flevarakis took charge at the start of the qualification games, there has been a renewed sense of optimism surrounding the Scandinavians.

"We play good games and we are competitive," Flevarakis said.

"They try every day and that is the important thing. I know we have limits but sometimes we even go beyond that and that is really encouraging for the future.

"I have tried to change everything, the way of thinking, the way of playing."

While Sweden has had their good moments in the qualifying campaign, Flevarakis believes this team will be even better in the future.

"In three or four years you can talk about higher goals. But now I think it is okay to think about how we can play a good game on Saturday. They have an experienced team and we saw that today," Flevarakis said, referring to Bulgaria's 99-65 victory against Poland.

The Swedish team are already preparing for the clash and, having won against the Bulgarian side in Varna, they know what it takes to beat them.

"They have two players who we need to keep our eyes on who score all the points and they are Todor Stoykov and Filip Videnov," Jonzen explained.

"In the first game it was only Videnov who scored all the points. If we can stop one of them or both, we will go a long way to winning."