Scotland v Ukraine

[Boaby Fisher]

I hate this draw for us now. We are going to hear a load of old bollocks about Ukraine being 'everyone's second favourite team' and you know FIFA will want them to go through. I expect the officials will do us no favours either. I really fancy us to stuff these and the Welsh, and then I would definitely back us to get out of the group. England are good but seem to freeze against Scotland and Iran and the US are diddies.

[Gordopolis]

I hate this draw for us now. We are going to hear a load of old bollocks about Ukraine being 'everyone's second favourite team' and you know FIFA will want them to go through. I expect the officials will do us no favours either. I really fancy us to stuff these and the Welsh, and then I would definitely back us to get out of the group. England are good but seem to freeze against Scotland and Iran and the US are diddies.

Aye it feels like there is far too much baggage associated with the tie now. Added to that there's the matter of just 4 days between that game and the final.
In summary, there is no shortage of excuses if we want them - hopefully we've got the mentality to avoid that route though.

[red23]

On 14/04/2022 at 19:25, paddymcp said:

Gareth Bale - 1 freekick a year aside - is a fairly average player now IMO.  He looked woeful at Spurs and hasn't played again this year at Madrid probably preferring the golf courses.

A crisis stricken Ukraine then Bale & Wayne Hennessey's Wales is the best chance any team could ever get of getting to a world cup. We have more players, playing at high levels with better teams than the both of them. No excuses.

Yeah he's terrible, lets just forget the fact he tore Austria a new one single handily with two moments of brilliance for the goals, despite not playing for months at Real, which he is now.  

[Gordopolis]

Yeah he's terrible, lets just forget the fact he tore Austria a new one single handily with two moments of brilliance for the goals, despite not playing for months at Real, which he is now.  

Last bit gives me hope - a wee injury could change the complexion of the final (should we make it) hugely.

[QOSfan019]

There is no way we are beating Ukraine

[Donathan]

5 hours ago, QOSfan019 said:

There is no way we are beating Ukraine

Why not? 

[QOSfan019]

2 hours ago, Donathan said:

Why not? 

Because Ukraine will much better prepared having spent a month and  a half for this game the refs will favour them and I don’t think tierney or Patterson will play which is a huge blow for us 

[Donathan]

23 minutes ago, QOSfan019 said:

Because Ukraine will much better prepared having spent a month and  a half for this game the refs will favour them and I don’t think tierney or Patterson will play which is a huge blow for us 

Tinfoil hat nonsense.

 

 

[Gordopolis]

Because Ukraine will much better prepared having spent a month and  a half for this game the refs will favour them and I don’t think tierney or Patterson will play which is a huge blow for us 

On the other hand we've got home advantage, and John McGinn

[Donathan]

I do think man-for-man that Ukraine are slightly better than us but home advantage should more than cancel that out. Their current crop of players peaked around 2019/20 and have gone downhill a bit over the last year or so. They’re above us in the fifa rankings but I assume that’s artificially inflated by a very lucky run to the last 8 at the euros.

 

They won their league B UNL group in 2018 ahead of Czech Republic and Slovakia before going on to win a tricky Euro 2020 qualifying group ahead of Portugal and Serbia with a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and no defeats. I think since then, they’ve gone downhill a bit:

 

 

- Relegated from league A in 2020, albeit they did beat Spain and were a bit unlucky in that they’d have stayed up with a point in Switzerland in their last game but ended up forfeiting it due to a covid outbreak in the squad.

 

- Finished second in their World Cup qualifying group but with a record of 2 wins, 6 draws and no defeats. This included two draws with Kazakhstan.

 

- At the euros they snuck through to the last 16 with three points thanks to a win against North Macedonia, one of the weakest teams at the tournament. They were beaten by both Austria and the Netherlands. In round 2 they beat 10 man Sweden at Hampden thanks to a very late goal in extra time, but then they went on to be thrashed by England in the quarter finals.

 

[Karpaty Lviv]

2 hours ago, QOSfan019 said:

Because Ukraine will much better prepared having spent a month and  a half for this game the refs will favour them and I don’t think tierney or Patterson will play which is a huge blow for us 

Dynamo are not letting their players (plenty play for the NT) join the NT camp until seven days before the game as they are playing.some friendlies in May. 

[Karpaty Lviv]

3 minutes ago, Donathan said:

I do think man-for-man that Ukraine are slightly better than us but home advantage should more than cancel that out. Their current crop of players peaked around 2019/20 and have gone downhill a bit over the last year or so. They’re above us in the fifa rankings but I assume that’s artificially inflated by a very lucky run to the last 8 at the euros.

 

They won their league B UNL group in 2018 ahead of Czech Republic and Slovakia before going on to win a tricky Euro 2020 qualifying group ahead of Portugal and Serbia with a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and no defeats. I think since then, they’ve gone downhill a bit:

 

 

- Relegated from league A in 2020, albeit they did beat Spain and were a bit unlucky in that they’d have stayed up with a point in Switzerland in their last game but ended up forfeiting it due to a covid outbreak in the squad.

 

- Finished second in their World Cup qualifying group but with a record of 2 wins, 6 draws and no defeats. This included two draws with Kazakhstan.

 

- At the euros they snuck through to the last 16 with three points thanks to a win against North Macedonia, one of the weakest teams at the tournament. They were beaten by both Austria and the Netherlands. In round 2 they beat 10 man Sweden at Hampden thanks to a very late goal in extra time, but then they went on to be thrashed by England in the quarter finals.

 

Petrakov has made them more stable and overall a better team than when Sheva was in charge.

I don’t think there is much between the sides at all, it will be a nervy one.

[Donathan]

4 minutes ago, Karpaty Lviv said:

Petrakov has made them more stable and overall a better team than when Sheva was in charge.

I don’t think there is much between the sides at all, it will be a nervy one.

Yeah, I give us the slight edge purely because of home advantage. In Ukraine they’d be favourites and on a neutral venue it’d be a toss up 

[2426255]

1 hour ago, Karpaty Lviv said:

Petrakov has made them more stable and overall a better team than when Sheva was in charge.

I don’t think there is much between the sides at all, it will be a nervy one.

I think I'm correct in saying that Petrakov used a 4-3-3 formation in his final two games of 2021 against Bosnia and Bulgaria. Do you think he will go with that again? or revert back to his preferred 3-5-2 (3421)?

If he goes back to a 3-5-2 (3421) I don't think Ukraine have the players to really replicate the strategy Austria employed in the midfield with their 3-4-2-1 in our last friendly. Marcel Sabitzer and Konrad Laimer dropped deeper and ran things against our midfield - particularly in the first quarter, forcing us to alter our tactics after we had 3 or 4 scares.

I don't really see Shaparenko, Stepanenko or Zinchenko doing that, maybe Malinovskyi if he played him deeper would be able to. 

I think the Ukraine game will be closer in style to the Poland game than the Austria game. I expect Scotland to have some good control and territory, but hopefully a bit more penetration rather than just cycling the ball around the defensive block. We were quite poor in that regard against Poland, maybe a bit too patient and lacking a bit of punch.

Ukraine aren't great with defending set plays and I expect that to feature heavily from Scotland.

Edited April 17, 2022 by 2426255

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

No amount of National training camps prepares you for competitive football. As a Ukrainian, I’d be concerned about competitive game time and match sharpness.

[HoBNob]

I'm worried about Ukraine, I'm even more worried/annoyed at the short turnover for the Wales game, that's not fair IMO. 

[Donathan]

3 hours ago, Grant228 said:

I'm worried about Ukraine, I'm even more worried/annoyed at the short turnover for the Wales game, that's not fair IMO. 

Eh, it’s no different to the turnover between the SF and F from the original dates. I assume Wales will field a weakened side against Poland though. 

[HoBNob]

10 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Eh, it’s no different to the turnover between the SF and F from the original dates. I assume Wales will field a weakened side against Poland though. 

Well yes precisely, Wales having a friendly before means they can heavily rotate the squad, and generally just not take it very seriously. 

Whereas you'd imagine we'll have to be at full tilt for the whole game. 

[Donathan]

1 minute ago, Grant228 said:

Well yes precisely, Wales having a friendly before means they can heavily rotate the squad, and generally just not take it very seriously. 

Whereas you'd imagine we'll have to be at full tilt for the whole game. 

Nations League rather than a friendly but I reckon they’ll be happy enough to punt the UNL as they’re already guaranteed a top 2 seeding for the proper qualifiers anyway 

[Big Fifer]

Tbh if we managed to get past Ukraine I think the squad will be absolutely buzzing going into the Wales game on a high and feeling confident. Understand folk's point about the tiredness but it could actually be a good thing.