I hold the camera at "sheep-height" without looking in viewfinder or screen and the animal came towards me, so the nearly perfect focus on the closest eye was just good luck.
About the desided crop:
I much figured of cropping so that the sheep should be more centered in the picture. That would of course make it much more balanced, but the "looking-up-from-above-feeling" should be missed. Some sky left gave it some kind of "balance" anyway I think.