Ukraine Soccer Team Beat Scotland, One Game Away From Qualifying For World Cup
With the world watching, The Ukrainian National Soccer Team traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, and beat Scotland 3-1.
The win sets up a winner takes all match Sunday at Wales at 11:30 a.m. ET. The winner of the game Sunday will be the final team that qualifies for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in November.
The Ukrainian team had trained in Slovenia because of the war that Russia has brought to their home country. They were led by their 64-year-old coach Oleksander Petrakov. This, the man that had volunteered for his country's army and was turned away and told to go qualify his team for the World Cup.
They arrived in Glasgow on Tuesday and were joined by Ukrainians from around the world that were not at home defending their country. Their fans, draped in blue and yellow shirts and flags, filled the visitor side of the stadium and loudly and proudly belted out the Ukraine National Anthem, along with the players.
From the start of the game, Ukraine was on the front foot. Their breakthrough came in the 33rd minute when Ruskin Malinovsky made a pretty thorough pass to Andri Yarmolenko who floated it over the Scottish goalie and gave them a 1-0 lead.
Early in the second half, it went to 2-0, when Oleksandr Karavaev found the head of Roman Yaremchuk who netted the goal.
Ukraine appeared to just be hanging on when Scotland's Callum McGregor lifted a shot from outside the box over the outstretched fingers of Georgiy Bushchan and the ball barely crossed the line to make it 2-1.
4:45 after the 90 minutes, Ukraine star Oleksandr Zinchenko slipped a pass through to late sub Artem Dovbyk in went in alone and netted the goal that secured the victory at 3-1. An incredible result for a team that has been through more than most.
After the game, Zinchenko, the Manchester City star, summed up everything for his team; "We have dream as a team, to be on the World Cup. So, we have one more game, one more final, and we need it, we have to have it, or this game is not going to mean anything."
Sunday, Wales v. Ukraine will be the most-watched soccer game in the world. Remember, this all occurred because the Russia team was disqualified from this qualifying process by FIFA for the actions against Ukraine.