Clarke wary of Ukraine
Scotland boss not about to underestimate war-torn nation
STEVE CLARKE has dismissed suggestions Ukraine have no chance of winning the Qatar 2022 playoff semi-final and stressed he will prepare Scotland to face top-class opposition.
Clarke yesterday named a 28-man squad for the game at Hampden next Wednesday night as well as a potential final against Wales in Cardiff on Sunday week.
The Path A encounter was scheduled to be played back in March, but was postponed following the Russian invasion and then rescheduled.
Viktor Leonenko, the former Dynamo Kiev and Ukraine forward, has written off his country’s prospects of reaching the World Cup finals in November due to the ongoing conflict.
But Clarke, who admitted the game may come too soon for Nathan Patterson despite including the Everton right back in his squad, is expecting the Euro 2020 quarter-finalists to be difficult to beat.
“We’ll not be paying attention to any of that talk whatsoever,” he said. “It’s good we are playing. We wanted the game to go ahead, no one wanted anyone to get a bye or to not play the match.
“It’s good they’ve had the chance to get out of the country and some of them have been in a training camp for a few weeks.
“They’ve been playing with Shakhtar and Dynamo. Obviously they have another nine or 10 boys from around Europe who will join them. They will have a good camp. They will be 100 per cent ready – just as we will be.”
Ukraine played three friendly matches last month and beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 in Germany and Empoli 3-1 in Italy and drew 1-1 with Rijeka in Slovenia.
“We’ve had people out to all three games having a look and we’ll analyse it,” said Clarke.
“It was only boys from inside Ukraine involved and a lot of them