Ukraine took a huge step closer to securing their spot at the 2022 World Cup later this year by beating Scotland 3-1 at Hampden Park in their World Cup qualifier playoff semi-final.

Ukraine now face Wales on Sunday, June 5 for a chance to seal their place in the November tournament taking place in Qatar.

Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk all got on the scoresheet and despite a late comeback by the home side courtesy of Callum McGregor’s strike, Ukraine’s football dreams remain alive and kicking.

An emotional night in Glasgow saw Ukraine, featuring in their first international match against another country since Russia unleashed an attack on their homeland in February, dominate from start to finish, and if it wasn’t for Scottish goalkeeper Craig Gordon’s first half heroics the score would have been bigger.

Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko, who broke down in tears during his pre-match press conference on Tuesday discussing the impact of the war on his homeland, put in a stunning individual performance just 24 hours later to ensure his team put some smiles on the faces of Ukrainians all around the world.

“Every game for us now is like a final. We have one more and we need to win it – we need to take it or this won’t mean anything,” he said.

“We scored three goals, we could’ve scored even more. [Sunday] is going to be a massive game for us. We need to show the best performance of our lives.”

As for Steve Clarke’s Scotland, their wait for a first World Cup finals appearance since 1998 goes on

Scotland vs. Ukraine final score

Goals:

UKR – Andriy Yarmolenko – 33rd min

UKR – Roman Yaremchuk – 49th min

SCO – Callum McGregor – 79th min

UKR – Artem Dovbyk – 90th min + 4