It’s rare that football takes a backseat in a football match, but in circumstances like these, it’s bound to happen. Ukraine took on Scotland yesterday in their World Cup Qualifying match. It was the semi-final of the mini-tournament and the winner would take on Wales in the final.
Initially, the match was supposed to be played in March, but the ongoing crisis in Ukraine shifted the entire timeline. As a result of the political catastrophe, Ukraine’s match against Scotland had a lot of emotions riding on it.
As the country’s national anthem rang down, all the Scottish fans in the stadium applauded, as an emotional Ukrainian side stood tall.
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An emotional reception
In the end, the focus had to turn back to football. The match finally started and Ukraine started really well, testing Scottish goalkeeper Craig Gordon twice in the early stages. However, Gordon couldn’t keep out Andriy Yarmolenko’s chip and Ukraine scored first.
In the second half, Roman Yaremchuk rose high to nod the ball into the net to double Ukraine’s lead. Scotland did get one goal back a while later as a goalkeeping error let Callum McGregor score. The match suddenly came back to life, but Ukraine held on till the end.
They even managed to score a third in the last minute of the match as Artem Dovbyk scored the final goal of the match to seal a 3-1 win for his nation.
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Ukraine take on Wales next
The win must have lifted the spirits of all Ukrainians, but they know that the job is not done yet. Ukraine face Wales in the final of the playoffs, and the winner would book their spot in the World Cup. An achievement like that would be huge for this nation, which has seen nothing but tragedy in the last few months.
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Wales do have a good squad and a superstar named Gareth Bale as their talisman, but Ukraine would still be the favorites for the tie. There’s just too much riding on this for them.
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