At least for 90 minutes, we were able to forget about the war – even air raid alerts and constant sirens did not drown out the voices of support for the Ukrainian team
Let’s start our article with gratitude: Scottish fans are love, Scottish football players and coaches who said that they themselves would cheer for Ukraine if it weren’t a rival – this is the maximum respect and respect. We will remember this forever, friends – as well as your touching attempts to sing the National Anthem in Ukrainian, as well as the kindness with which you surrounded us in the official decisive match.
Let’s continue about our team – after all, what handsome guys these guys are, most of whom had practically no match practice, who have families, relatives in Ukraine, under bombing and rocket attacks. You not only did your job, you made the most unfortunate people in the world happy at these moments when we need support so much.
And let’s finally talk about the game.
The game went well!
First, the national team proved to be a very strong-willed team. There were many moments in Scotland when it was possible to break. For example, when Buschan’s passing with the defenders did not work for the umpteenth time – here someone would explain whether the intention was to play to save the ball, whether the defenders were specifically instructed to play necessarily through the rear. Ours worked very insecure with flank serves and crosses, and Robertson and even young Hickey “buffed out” our defense many times.
Secondly, the team managed to survive and endure all this. Despite the abundance of small and gross mistakes, as well as not flawless implementation – especially in the end, Ukraine constantly took the hit and still controlled most of the game. Both in the first and in the second half, our team kept the advantage in the percentage of possession 56/44, losing only some 5-7 minute segments.
Thirdly, the quality of Ukraine’s performance was an order of magnitude higher than that of Scotland.. The hosts, frankly, were obliged to score their chances – they were well played, but completed very poorly. Of the 14 shots by the hosts, only three hit the target, and they had to wait about an hour for the first shot to Bushchan. Ukraine, on the level of completion, was far ahead. Let’s remember how Malinovsky found Yarmolenko and how Andrei dealt with his rivals. This is a higher class than any that showed this evening in Scotland. In terms of the effectiveness of shots (the percentage of hits on target from those executed), Ukraine significantly outperformed the Scots – 53% -21%. Our team worked much better in passing and moving the ball. She was simply better tonight.
Of course, Scotland left us homework for Wales.
The first is physical recovery. Playing with Wales is already the fifth day, and in general it will be only the second (!) Of five matches in June, because the national team will play not only the playoffs for the World Cup, but also the opening matches of the most unnecessary tournament on the planet Earth – the League of Nations. How to save energy for this and where to get frames to refresh the game without losing quality? The most difficult task for the headquarters. At the very least, it was painful to look at Yarmolenko, Stepanenko, Malinovsky.
The second is bug fixes. A big marriage in the interaction of the goalkeeper with the defenders led to Buschan’s excessive nervousness. And then the question is whether Petrakov, Shovkovsky and Kernozenko will change the goalkeeper, or, on the contrary, they will give him a portion of confidence, because Zhora was led to this game, he played the whole tour and obviously played enough as No. 1.
The third is the psychological, moral factor. After such an important victory, how to quickly “ground” the guys and restore their wolf mood before the decisive match against Wales?
And that was what the Scotland-Ukraine match taught us.
The main thing is that not everything is decided by nominal indicators. So, we were most afraid for the tone of the guys from the UPL, and who got hooked the very first? Players from championships who continued to play. We were afraid for the youngsters, but meanwhile the late substitutions worked completely, and Mudryk and Dovbik proved that you can not only count on them, but also rely on them. We have always argued that our team is doomed to plow, not to play – but in fact we have the most playing Ukrainian team in many years, capable of winning in the exchange of moments, and not in a deep trench.
Everything is good in football, and it makes sense to fight for it. The success of the national team is also inspiring regarding the 2022/23 season in the UPL and European competitions, and this is another trump card for those who are trying to keep the domestic championship now and achieve its early resumption.
This victory is for the entire Ukrainian people and exclusively about them. The whole world knows the courage and responsibility of Ukrainians, which is manifested both on the football field, and on volunteer routes, and in dugouts at the front. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! This sounds all over the world and glorifies our homeland, for whose future its best sons and daughters are fighting.
Yaroslav Smelyansky, Sport Arena
Source: Sportarena
