Turkey racked up a 9-2 victory over Sweden in the men's Group A match at the Copper Box yesterday. 

Ucar said: 'We have never played with a crowd before. It seems as if Goalball is very popular with a British audience.'

Sweden player Jorgen Lindahl was also impressed, saying: 'We had a lot of family members in the audience and the British crowd seemed to be behind us too, which was great, but we were under a lot of pressure and luck was not on our side.'

Ucar said the Turkey side's training had prepared them well for the Paralympic atmosphere, adding: 'The first game is always stressful, but due to the motivation that we have the stress didn't hit us.'

But Lindahl admitted: 'We were nervous. We were not as mentally prepared as the other team and unfortunately it showed.

'We went three goals down very quickly and it's very difficult to come back from that.'