Ukraine stuns Scotland in World Cup qualifier to give war-torn country a morale boost

[babylonsister]

Ukraine stuns Scotland in World Cup qualifier to give war-torn country a morale boost
By Ben Church, CNN
Updated 5:34 PM ET, Wed June 1, 2022

Glasgow, Scotland (CNN)Despite a preparation like no other for an international football fixture, Ukraine produced a momentous performance to beat Scotland 3-1 in its World Cup playoff semifinal at Hampden Park in Glasgow Wednesday.

The emotional victory, that brought many watching Ukrainian fans -- sporting yellow and blue colors -- to tears, puts Ukraine just one win away from qualifying for the Qatar World Cup later this year.

Wednesday's playoff had originally been scheduled to take place in March, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced the match's postponement. Ukraine now needs to beat Wales in Cardiff on Sunday in its playoff final to reach the World Cup.

Before the game, the visitors had spoken about giving those back in their homeland a morale boost during the war and they did just that courtesy of goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk.

more...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/football/ukraine-scotland-world-cup-playoff-spt-intl/index.html

[underpants]

1. Awesome

[mcar]

2. This is touching

Nothing against Scotland, but who wouldn't root for the Ukraine National team.

[TomSlick]

3. I canna root against Scotland but this is nae a bad thing.

[KS Toronado]

4. Wonder if Scotland really tried to win?

Or did they decide this game was bigger than them and would do wonders for the Ukrainian people?
If so my hats off to Scotland.

[róisín_dubh]

5. The crowd at Hampden Park...

was pretty subdued. My best friend is Scottish and we watched the match together from England. He showed me videos of previous matches, especially the singing of Flower of Scotland pre-match. Yesterday’s crowd was quiet in comparison.
I feel so badly for Scotland, but still…

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yeah, they fully tried. In a normal situation, the result wouldn't be that surprising

Ukraine has a larger population, and is keen on football, so the sport gets the best athletes with the suitable skills. Scotland loves football, and qualifying for the World Cup is its permanent target, so they'd always play at 100%. But the disruption to preparing for this could have thrown the Ukrainians off their game, but it didn't. Excellent team ethos and performance under pressure from Ukrainians, as we've seen on the battlefield too.

[brooklynite]

7. You don't throw a qualifier for the World Cup.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. 🌻🇺🇦❤🇺🇦🌻 Slava Ukraini! 🌻🇺🇦❤🇺🇦🌻