Karan
London: Scotland fell short in their quest to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 as goals from Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk gave Ukraine the win in the Play-off semi-final clash at Hampden Park on Wednesday. With this win, Ukraine have set up the Play-off final against Wales. For Scotland, Callum McGregor’s second-half strike went in vain as they lost 3-1 The anthems got proceedings underway at Hampden Park – as the Ukraine players each stood draped in their country’s flag for their anthem on an emotional night in their first competitive match since the ongoing conflict began in Ukraine in February. As the game got underway, it was the away side who created the first opening in the 8th minute as Viktor Tsyhankov latched onto a cut-back but his crisp first-time effort was tipped over by Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon. The Scots grew into the game though and Hickey headed wide before Grant Hanley also missed with a header from a Robertson corner. Ukraine then almost took the lead in the 15th minute, but Gordon once again produced a brilliant save, this time down low to deny Andriy Yarmolenko. It was an open first half and the hosts were the next to pour forward, with Robertson seeing his shot blocked before John McGinn fired over. It was the away side who crafted the next opening in the 33rd minute though and this time Gordon could not repeat his heroics. The dangerous Yarmolenko made a great run to get on the end of a ball over the top, before taking a touch and cutely dinking the ball over the Scottish goalkeeper. Just that goal separated the sides at the break but it was soon to get worse for Scotland as the visitors doubled their lead on 49 minutes as Roman Yaremchuk rose to head in at the far post. ...
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