Weeping Alexander Zinchenko said Ukraine will struggle to bring the “incredible emotions” of the World Cup qualifiers to its home country when they face Scotland on Wednesday, and that while returning to peace is the overriding priority, the national team is striving to fulfill a football dream.
Ukraine will play its first official match since Russia’s invasion of Hampden Park, and the prize will be in the final of the playoffs for Qatar 2022 against Wales. Since February 24, football has faded into insignificance, but Zinchenko was visibly emotional when, when asked how he and his teammates managed to prepare for the match, he explained what effect success on the field could have.
“Every Ukrainian wants one thing to stop this war,” he said. “I’ve talked to people from all over the world, and also to Ukrainian children who just don’t understand what’s going on. They have only one dream: to stop the war.
“When it comes to football, the Ukrainian team has its own dream: we want to go to the World Cup, to give these incredible emotions to the people, because the Ukrainians deserve it so much at the moment.
Zinchenko described a “fighting spirit” in the team before a match for which Ukraine, whose core has not played competitive football since last year, is an outsider. “Everyone understands what is happening in Ukraine these days, what the situation is on the ground, so our motivation is definitely 100% to win,” he said.
The manager of Ukraine, Alexander Petrakov, spoke about the difficulties in preparing his team for the match, which was originally scheduled for March.
“This is a very difficult task when every player thinks about his fathers, mothers, close relatives in Ukraine,” he said. “But obviously every player understands how big the task is. I work under a lot of stress, but we are still trying to do our best, to achieve the result and our team is fully prepared for battle. “
Although the events on the ground may be uncompromising, there is a spirit of solidarity in the accumulation. A group of Ukrainian and Scottish fans will sing together the national anthem of Ukraine on the steps of Hampden Park at 18:00, and local fans will be encouraged to learn the song phonetically.
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