‘Today it’s Ukraine, tomorrow it could be you... we have to defeat the evil’
UKRAINE midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko last night lauded the Scotland supporters who have pledged to sing his country’s national anthem at the Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final tonight – and stated the “evil” of the Russian invasion will only be defeated if countries unite.
The Manchester City midfielder spoke emotionally about the ongoing conflict in his homeland before he took part in a training session at Hampden along with his fellow members of the visitors’ national squad.
The 25-year-old confessed that he and his team-mates were touched when he was told the sell-out 52,000-strong crowd inside the stadium will sing “The Glory and Freedom of Ukraine Have Not Yet Perished” before kick-off this evening.
“I take this initiative extremely well,” said Zinchenko. “We have to be together. We have to fight Russian aggression, we have to basically defeat the evil. So, yes, this is an amazing, amazing initiative.”
Zinchenko, who helped City to reach the Champions League semi-final and win the Premier League this season, admitted that he thought long and hard about returning to Ukraine to help fight the Russians following the invasion in February.
However, the 48-times capped player opted to stay in England and use his profile to highlight the plight of his people to the world. He has been heartened by the support his country has received from the football world.
“Maybe I was holding a few times the gun, the weapon,” he said. “I am 100 per cent sure I will be more useful to Ukraine to be in Manchester and to try to help the Ukrainian people and Ukraine as much as I can with a lot of different things.
“Starting with sending some stuff, sending some money, sending messages to my Instagram followers. Even, I don’t know, doing some interviews, speaking with you. I need to share this and I need to show to the whole world what is happening right now in Ukraine.
“The whole world needs to know the real truth. This I feel is my mission. I 100 per cent agree with Andriy Shevchenko [the legendary Ukrainian striker] who has said exactly the same.”
Asked how difficult it will be for the Ukrainian players to focus on playing football against Scotland given the situation in their country, Zinchenko said: “I’ve been asked this question a lot in these months. And I think you can ask any Ukrainian and the answer will be the same. It’s impossible to describe these feelings until you are in this position. The things which are happening now in our country are not acceptable. It’s something which I cannot even describe.
“That’s what we need to stop this aggression together and we need to win. Because Ukraine is a country of freedom. Ukraine is not going to give up.
“But the thing is a lot of countries maybe don’t understand that today it’s Ukraine, but tomorrow it could be you. So that’s why we need to be united and we need to beat this Russian aggression altogether.”
Ukraine manager Oleksandr Petrakov attempted to enlist in the army when the Russians invaded his country only to be told to concentrate on helping to prepare the national team for the match against Scotland.
He is unsure how his side, who played three warmup friendly games against Borussia Monchengladbach, Empoli and Rejika last month, will perform this evening. However, he is certain there will be no shortage of desire.
“It’s clearly a very difficult task to prepare the team when every single player is thinking about fathers, mothers, close relatives and family back in Ukraine,” said Petrakov. “We are using a whole load of methods, we try jokes, we try to motivate people in a light manner.
“But every player knows clearly just how huge this challenge is for this game and that will make my task even more difficult as I am working under a lot of duress and stress but we are trying to show our best. We are trying to achieve the result and the team is fully prepared to fight.
“The game is very difficult and the situation is very difficult and I will find certain words for certain players, but I don’t want to reveal them all. This is a very intimate conversation that I am going to have with my players. I don’t want to say exactly what I will tell my players, but the main thing is to achieve the result.
“We only played three friendly games, they weren’t competitive. What the players will be like we will see on the pitch.
“The Scottish team is a strong team. They can substitute any player on the field and could play with any formation or set of players.”
Zinchenko in emotional outpouring on eve of play-off