Our fans are worried for their lives. We can bring them joy
Petrakov’s patched-up squad head to Glasgow determined to give their country some relief
IT IS not long now until Oleksandr Petrakov and his patched-up squad head back on the road. No 20-hour bus journey this time, no driving near battlefields and scorched earth. Only a flight from Slovenia to Glasgow — the penultimate pit-stop, Ukraine hope, en route to Qatar this winter. Preparations for Wednesday’s play-off have been frantic and fraught. Even in Brdo, their adopted home on the outskirts of Ljubljana, minds never strayed far from home.
‘People are dying every day,’ goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk said. ‘We are thinking about it all, but we have to concentrate on our jobs.’
The occasional distraction can help. Last Sunday, while in the gym, Petrakov’s squad watched Manchester City’s final Premier League game with Aston Villa. At half-time, with the title slipping from City’s grasp, one player reassured his team-mates that Oleksandr Zinchenko would come on and City would win. They were proved right — ‘Sasha’ created the second of City’s three goals.
Until recently, only Ukraine-based players have been part of camp. Riznyk, for one, had not trained properly between the Russian invasion in February, and early May, when the first bus from Kyiv arrived in Slovenia.
In that time, watching team-mates overseas has become a tonic. ‘For me, great moral support comes from the guys playing abroad,’ midfielder Serhiy Sydorchuk said earlier this month. ‘I’m looking at those guys playing and it helps me.’
It turns out rap music and a double bass can do the same. A week before Zinchenko’s heroics, the Ukraine squad came together for another, rare moment of national celebration during these dark days.
‘The whole team watched Eurovision,’ striker Roman Yaremchuk revealed. ‘I am proud that I am a Ukrainian, that such people win at Eurovision, that the whole world knows about us. I congratulate the Kalush Orchestra.’
Back home, commentator Timur Miroshnychenko covered the show from a bunker in Kyiv. For the squad, the idyllic surroundings of Brdoa can’t ease the sense of responsibility. ‘I understand that now everyone is expecting the same feats from the national team,’ Yaremchuk said.
To reach the World Cup, Ukraine must beat Scotland and then Wales. It would be an astonishing achievement, given the weight of war on their shoulders. And their hearts.
Like Kalush Orchestra, they have had the support of friendly neighbours. Sydorchuk and his young family spent the invasion’s early days hiding in an underground car park. Shortly before arriving in Slovenia, however, they were walking through a park in Romania.
There, Sydorchuk’s twins chased after a butterfly, towards an elderly couple sitting on a bench.
The gentleman offered Sydorchuk’s son a biscuit. ‘Please take it,’ he insisted. ‘Slava Ukraini! (Glory to Ukraine).’
Sydorchuk said: ‘It’s very important to feel that people want to help us with everything they have.’
Football has already lent a hand, too. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin offered Ukraine his country’s training base. ‘We seem to be at home here, for which we are infinitely grateful,’ Petrakov told Radenko Mijatovic, head of the Slovenian FA, this week.
Ukraine have also found willing ‘sparring’ partners in German side Borussia Monchengladbach, Italy’s Empoli and Croatian outfit Rijeka. They hoped for more this week. A friendly against the Democratic Republic of Congo fell through; games against Lithuania, Malta, Venezuela and teams in the Spanish second division were all explored. Unfortunately, none was quite right, so Ukraine made do with an internal match.
These friendlies were about more than rebuilding fitness. They have raised funds for the war effort; refugees from Ukraine could go for free.
Petrakov’s players have worn special shirts, too, with squad numbers a patchwork of places suffering back home: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Bucha, and so on. Across the front is emblazoned ‘United For Ukraine’, surrounded by an outline of the country’s borders, featuring flags of nations who have come to their aid.
For Petrakov and his squad, there is more at stake than the Qatar World Cup.
Against Empoli, they emerged on to the pitch with flags of the European Union. ‘We see support from the EU, but we want even more,’ Yaremchuk said. ‘We need to make every effort to make people see that we want to live alongside them.’
After facing Rijeka, Petrakov added: ‘We want everyone in Europe to know that we want to be part of the EU family. Ukraine is Europe.’
Ukraine’s players even released a video message asking the West to ‘embrace’ their nation.
‘Ukraine defends Europe,’ they said. ‘Ukraine should be in the European Union.’ That decision will be made away from their enclave underneath the Julian Alps. But Ukraine’s World Cup fate remains in their hands. Zinchenko, Andriy Yarmolenko and the rest of Petrakov’s foreign legion have now arrived in Slovenia.
‘I could not wait for the end of the season to come to the national team,’ Yarmolenko said.
‘I was very sad, I was in touch with them all the time. But it’s one thing to talk on the phone, another to meet them face to face, to share the pitch with them.’
Ukraine will fly to Glasgow tomorrow undercooked, perhaps underprepared, but with so much to play for.
‘We have to fight for our country,’ Riznyk said. ‘We are preparing for one of the most important matches in our lives,’ defender Valery Bondar added.
‘There is no fatigue at all, we know why we are gathered here, why we do all this.’
During Eurovision’s public vote, Ukraine received 439 points out of a possible 468. As Scotland will be aware, Petrakov’s side will have the world willing them on, too, come Wednesday.
‘Because you want to give people at least some joy, it adds inspiration,’ Yarmolenko said.
‘You have to give all your strength for yourself, our fans, all Ukrainians, for those soldiers who protect us and our families.
‘Of course, the guys saw the appeal of our military, who are asking us to secure a ticket to the World Cup. I can’t guarantee that we will get there, but I promise that we will give our all.’