UKRAINE BEAT SCOTLAND TO KEEP WORLD CUP DREAM ALIVE
UKRAINE emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup amid an ongoing crisis moved past the first hurdle with a 3-1 win over Scotland on Wednesday in a pulsating playoff semifinal.
Ukraine manager Oleksandr Petrakov dedicated his side’s 3-1 win over Scotland to reach a World Cup play-off final to those fighting in the trenches of his conflict-torn homeland.
In their first competitive match since Ukraine was at tacked by Russia, Andriy Yar molenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk scored the goals to set up a clash away to Wales tomorrow for a place in Qatar later this year.
“This victory was not for me or for the team members, it was for our country. This was a huge victory for Ukraine,” said Petrakov.
“They did everything for the people they play for, the Ukrainians.
“For the people watching them back home: the armed forces in the trenches, the peo ple working in the hospitals. They say thank you to us and we say thank you to them.”
The match had been moved from March, just weeks af ter the conflict began, to give Ukraine the chance to fulfil the fixture.
Six of the starting line-up for the visitors are still contracted to Ukrainian clubs and had not played competitively for months.
Meanwhile, Steve Clarke’s poker face remained intact, his demeanour telling you nothing about how dreadful a night this was for himself and his team.
In keeping his emotions in check, the manager was pretty much alone after Scotland’s 3-1 World Cup play-off semi-final defeat by Ukraine.
His players couldn’t match him in the deadpan stakes. They had regret written all over them. Two games away from a place at the World Cup, so many of them picked the wrong time to lose the plot.
So much of the preamble was given over to how Ukraine would handle things at Hamp den. Just fine, as it turned out.
They tore through a Scotland midfield that wasn’t at the rac es, they found vast prairies of space in a three-man Scotland defence that was ill-selected and left in situ for far too long, way after it became obvious that it was just not working.
Ukraine are heading for Car diff to face Wales in tomorrow’s final, not Scotland. They could be going there on the back of a four or even five-goal winning margin, but in the aftermath at Hampden they didn’t look like men who were going to ponder that for very long. They were outstanding in every sense. –