Scotland head coach Stephen Clark told what he expects from the Nations League match against Ukraine, which will be held today in Glasgow.
Stephen Clark“I think the Scottish fans now know that the Ukrainian national team is a good team (Teams of Scotland and Ukraine met last June in Glasgow as part of the playoffs of the 2022 World Cup qualifying round, and then the Ukrainians celebrated a 3-1 victory — ed.). Our opponent has good possession of the ball and has shown that he can play very effectively in counterattacks.
I am sure that the Ukrainians will play at the same level as they did in the June match against us in the playoffs of the 2022 World Cup qualification. But at the same time, I expect a higher level of play from our team - one that we can demonstrate. In the June match with Ukraine, we did not succeed. I hope we get it this time. I hope that it is with the match against Ukraine that we will start moving up. I just feel like we've stalled a little over the summer and we want to move forward again.
That June match with Ukraine was quite unique - this was led to by circumstances related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This time it will be a slightly different, but no less important game. I am sure that the Ukrainians will be energized again, this is a good team, they want to lead our group and return to Division A of the League of Nations. But we also want this.
The League of Nations is an important tournament for us. At least for the reason that we qualified for Euro 2020 through the League of Nations.
I think that we are in a good tournament position. We scored six points in three matches. What I would like from this week is to reach the last game of the tournament against Ukraine in Poland with a real chance of first place in the group. And for this, I think we definitely need to win at least one of the home matches - with Ukraine and Ireland, ”Clark said at the pre-match press conference held yesterday in Glasgow.
