Shevchenko had missed half of the season through assorted injuries and looked sluggish and off the pace in the early stages. But Blokhin had had a dream everything would come together and so it proved.

Suddenly, injury-hit months melted away and Shevchenko leapt like a man a decade younger than his 35 years to head two superb goals to cancel out Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s opener for the fancied Swedes.