League of Nations. The Ukrainian national team lost to Scotland and lost the leadership in the group

22.09.2022 00:43

Photo by Mark Scates - SNS Group

Oleksandr Petrakov's wards played their first September match, in which they lost to the team of Scotland.

The national team of Ukraine continued its performance in the second division of the League of Nations with a postponed match of the 1st round against Scotland. The blue-and-yellow team again found themselves in Glasgow, where they beat the hosts in the playoffs of the World Cup 2022 selection at the beginning of June.

Oleksandr Petrakov faced significant personnel troubles. Due to health problems, Bushchan, Shaparenko, Zinchenko and Sobol did not go to the meeting. Volynets, a rookie of the national team, did not have a British visa, Zabarny was serving a disqualification, and Mykolenko and Kovalenko received microtraumas. So the head coach of the blue-yellow team put up an experimental "base".

The start of the match was preceded by a minute of applause performed by both national teams in memory of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, who died on September 8 at the age of 96. We should add that about a thousand of our fans were present in the stands of Hampden Park.

Photo by Mark Scates - SNS Group

The Ukrainians started the match well, in particular, Mudryk's breakthroughs added sharpness to our team's attacks, but in general, in the first half, the advantage was on the side of Scotland. So, in the 11th minute, Adams broke into the penalty area from the left flank and punched into the hands of Trubin, although the referees recorded the striker's offside. McGinn and Christie later had dangerous headers and in the 22nd minute Armstrong tested our keeper from the penalty line. In the future, the game took on a more chaotic character, there was a lot of fighting, and regular mistakes by the blue and yellow in their own half of the field caused concern.

After the break, the Ukrainians took control of the ball, Mudryk had a good chance after Gordon's unsuccessful exit, but Mykhailo missed the goal. However, only the home team dominated the field. First, Tierney intercepted the ball near our penalty area and shot at Armstrong, whose shot was handled by Trubin. Then the same Armstrong and Hickey punched dangerously but inaccurately.

Photo by Mark Scates - SNS Group

In the 63rd minute, Adams could have scored twice after serving McGinn, but first he hit the crossbar, and then his shot was parried by Trubin. However, the Scots managed to open Anatoly's goal in the 70th minute — McGinn took the ball away from Bondar in the penalty area of ​​the Ukrainian national team and shot it right into the far corner.

Unfortunately, the dominance of the hosts continued, in particular, Trubin had to save after Tierney's kick from the rebound. However, in the 80th minute, Steve Clarke's Jokers did manage to score a second goal - Fraser delivered a corner and Dykes closed at the near post. Well, in the 87th minute, the Ukrainians experienced déjà vu, because after another corner, Dykes scored a double. So we have a disappointing result for our team — 0:3.

Photo by Mark Scates - SNS Group

Thus, the Ukrainian national team suffered its first defeat in the League of Nations-2022/2023 and lost the first place in the group. Ahead of them is a flight to Yerevan, where they will meet Armenia on Saturday, September 24.

Nations League. Division B. Group 1

04.06.2022

Armenia - Ireland - 1: 0

08.06.2022

Ireland - Ukraine - 0: 1

Scotland - Armenia - 2: 0

11.06.2022

Ukraine - Armenia - 3: 0

Ireland - Scotland - 3: 0

14.06.2022

Ukraine — Ireland — 1:1

Armenia — Scotland — 1:4

21.09.2022

Scotland - Ukraine - 3: 0 (0: 0)

Goals: McGinn (70), Dykes (80, 87).

Scotland: Gordon, Patterson (Gickey, 26), McTominay, Hendry, McKenna, Tierney (Taylor, 85), Armstrong (Fraser, 76), McGinn (c), McGregor, Christie (McLean, 85), Adams (Dykes, 76).

Substitutions: Kelly, McCrory, Porteous, Gilmore, Rolston, Jack.

Trainer: Steve Clark.

Ukraine: Trubin, Mykhailichenko, Matvienko, Bondar, Karavaev, Stepanenko (Sydorchuk, 46), Mudryk (Ignatenko, 83), Malinovskyi, Pikhalyonok (Zubkov, 83), Yarmolenko (k) (Tsygankov, 67), Dovbyk (Yaremchuk, 67).

Substitutions: Lunin, Riznyk, Kryvtsov, Kacharaba, Mykolenko, Tymchyk.

Trainer: Oleksandr Petrakov.

Referee: Maurizio Mariani (Italy).

Booked: Stepanenko (18), Bondar (45+1), Yaremchuk (71), Sydorchuk (83), Malinovskyi (90+2).

September 21. Glasgow. Hampden Park.

Standings

24.09.2022

Armenia - Ukraine 16.00

Scotland - Ireland 21.45

27.09.2022

Ireland - Armenia 21.45

Ukraine - Scotland 21.45

The kick-off is Kyiv time.

According to the rules, the winner of the group will receive a ticket to League A, and the last team of the quartet in the next cycle will play in League C.