There are far more important things going on but that doesn’t mean this failure doesn’t sting like hell... because this Scotland team’s so much better than the version that turned up last night
Magnitude of match seemed to rob us of confidence
IT wasn’t just that they wanted or needed it more.
For all the emotions coursing through the veins of the Ukrainian players, it didn’t only come down to raw passion and the desire to make a statement as the world watched on.
No, they beat Scotland because they were technically better, passed the ball more crisply, created the majority of chances and took advantage of a home team that failed to turn up for most of a night that will live long in the memory for the right and wrong reasons.
And in Andriy Yarmolenko they had a player who welded undying commitment to undoubted quality and performed like a man possessed by more than just the need to win a football match.
This guy, who will leave David Moyes’ West Ham in the summer, was sensational – the Hammer of the Scots all right.
Steve Clarke’s men had come into the World Cup play-off semi-final brimming with the confidence an eight game unbeaten run at this level brings.
But come the night, come the moment, Scotland looked like the team that had the emotion and drive sucked out of them by the magnitude of the match they were playing in.
And by the time they made a game of it in the last 20 minutes, it was much too little too late.
Another World Cup dream had bitten the dust and while there are far more important things going on right now, that doesn’t mean this latest failure doesn’t sting like hell because this Scotland team is so much better than the version watched by the capacity crowd last night.
The build-up dripped with emotion. As their greatest player, Andriy Shevchenko, said prematch, Ukraine had already won just by being in Scotland.
Their players had other ideas and played with the head as much as the heart. They deserved their win, despite Scotland’s late fightback.
Ukraine were as up for it as they were expected to be. Maybe Benfica’s Roman Yaremchuk was too up for it and received a yellow card in the first six minutes for clattering Billy Gilmour.
Far more worrying from a Scotland perspective was the ease with which the away side carved out the first opening in the eighth minute – a simple ball swept in from the Ukrainian right and with Grant Hanley dragged out of position and Aaron Hickey unable to get across, Viktor Tsygankov got away a first-time shot that needed Craig Gordon to do what Craig Gordon does.
A flying left arm diverted the ball to safety but it was a warning klaxon and in the 16th minute Gordon had to do even better
with his other arm to deny Yarmolenko from seven yards after the striker was played in by the ball bouncing off Callum McGregor into his path.
The Scots were all over the place at this point. Hanley was toiling and it took another reaction from Gordon to bale him out, racing from his line to make a block.
Gilmour and McGregor weren’t getting on the ball to dictate, while Yarmolenko, drifting into the space between the duo and the back three, was posing problems that Scotland hadn’t found a solution to.
And there could be no complaint about Yarmolenko opening the scoring in the 32nd minute with a sensational finish over Gordon from the edge of the box after timing his run off the left to perfection to get on the end of a long ball from Rusian Malinovskyi, who wasn’t closed down despite Scotland having two strikers who should have been hounding the visitors in possession.
Hanley played Yarmolenko onside but it was his movement and exquisite first touch and lob for the Ukrainian’s 45th goal for his country that was greeted with unconfined joy by his 3500 countrymen and women in the stands.
Clarke went up the tunnel at half-time with real work to do and decisions to make in terms of his formation.
Ukraine’s three up front had won the first-half battle with Scotland’s three at the back but the home side had struggled all over the pitch and in truth were lucky to be only one down at the break. Ryan Christie came on for Lyndon Dykes, a move designed to give Scotland an extra body in the middle of the pitch and hopefully more possession.
Yet within three minutes the size of task doubled as Yaremchuk got in between Scott McTominay and Hickey to head home Ukraine’s second.
There was a danger that this would develop into a rout. Gordon’s save from Yarmolenko immediately after Ukraine’s second goal prevented it from becoming one.
Just before the hour mark Clarke finally matched up with his opponents by going to a back four, moving McTominay into the middle of the pitch and Hickey and Andy Robertson moving into the traditional full-back roles.
It got better and the move should have been rewarded with a goal in the 66th minute. Somehow John McGinn missed the sitter of sitters with his head from six yards after the keeper had made a mess of holding a McTominay cross.
Liam Cooper and Gilmour were hooked for Jack Hendry and Stuart Armstrong and with 11 minutes left McGregor threw us a lifeline with a shot that just crossed the line after Ukraine’s dodgy keeper Georgiy Bushchan made a mess of stopping it.
It wasn’t enough. The first 70 minutes wasn’t nearly enough and ultimately despite the late flurry, Scotland – and Ukraine, who scored again with the last kick of the ball – got what they deserved on a wretched night for our nation that was probably celebrated by the rest of the world.