Victorious 3-1 against Scotland in Glasgow, Ukraine qualified on Wednesday evening for the final of the last European play-off of the 2022 World Cup.
Wales are their next opponent. Despite a preparation completely truncated by the Russia war, Ukraine qualified on Wednesday evening for the final of the last European play-off of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18).
The national team led by Oleksandr Petrakov won 3-1 against Scotland at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
Ukraine is therefore only one victory away from the World Cup in Qatar. The play-off final is scheduled for Sunday June 5 against Wales, which has been waiting for this outcome since March and its qualification against Austria.
The winner of the meeting, to be organized in Cardiff, will find themselves in Group B of the final phase, with England, Iran and the United States.
“Giving incredible emotions to Ukrainians”
“Every day we receive messages from our soldiers. A lot of soldiers and a lot of people in Ukraine love football. world”, revealed the Ukrainian midfielder Taras Stepanenko at the beginning of May.
A statement that testifies to the significant emotional load that the players had to manage. Tuesday at a press conference, Oleksandr Zinchenko, one of the stars of this team, broke down in tears saying he wanted to give “incredible emotions to the Ukrainians because they deserve it right now”.
Andriy Yarmolenko (33rd), Roman Yaremchuk (49th) and Artem Dovbyk (90th+5) showed enough composure to score the three Ukrainian goals of this action-packed evening.
Scotland, rather dominated in the first period, accumulated the chances after conceding the break. In the stands, the local supporters were amazed, especially when a point-blank header did not reduce the gap (67th).
By dint of attacking to keep hope, Steve Clarke’s men were rewarded with a blunder from opposing goalkeeper Georgi Bushchan on a strike from Callum McGregor (79th). But in the end, the Scots pay in particular for their imprecision: only three shots on target out of fourteen attempts.
This Ukrainian performance comes after more than three months of interruption of the local championship, which of course was immediately interrupted when Russian tanks invaded the territory.
For the sake of fairness, UEFA and FIFA had chosen to postpone this part of the qualifying play-offs, even if it meant drawing lots for the groups without the name of the last European qualifier being known.
