Scotland vs Ukraine
UEFA Nations League
Group B1
Hampden Park
After missing out on the World Cup, Scotland needed to get the result heading into this fixture. Ukraine, missing out on major players, would have been happy to hold on to a point.
The first hour of the game did not witness any goal. This mounted pressure on the hosts. However, McGinn opened the scoring in the 70th minute.
Dykes came off the bench to double the lead in the 80th minute. He completed a brace eight minutes later to seal the result.
Scotland vs Ukraine: Match report
Full time score: Scotland – Ukraine – 3: 0 (0: 0)
Goals: McGinn (70), Dykes (80, 87).
Scotland: Gordon, Patterson (Gickey, 26), McTominay, Hendry, McKenna, Tierney (Taylor, 85), Armstrong (Fraser, 76), McGinn (c), McGregor, Christie (McLean, 85), Adams (Dykes, 76).
Substitutions: Kelly, McCrory, Porteous, Gilmore, Rolston, Jack.
Head coach: Steve Clark.
Ukraine: Trubin, Mykhailichenko, Matvienko, Bondar, Karavaev, Stepanenko (Sydorchuk, 46), Mudryk (Ignatenko, 83), Malinovskyi, Pikhalyonok (Zubkov, 83), Yarmolenko (k) (Tsygankov, 67), Dovbyk (Yaremchuk, 67).
Substitutions: Lunin, Riznyk, Kryvtsov, Kacharaba, Mykolenko, Tymchyk.
Head coach: Oleksandr Petrakov.
Referee: Maurizio Mariani (Italy).
Booked: Stepanenko (18), Bondar (45+1), Yaremchuk (71), Sydorchuk (83), Malinovskyi (90+2).
Managers’ reaction
Oleksandr Petrakov: We didn’t have the main players who were injured, so I gave a chance to other players to play. Zinchenko, Bushchan did not play, Zabarny got an “extra”… Trubin played well. I gave other artists a chance, they failed. In the first half the team looked even more or less, and in the second we saw so much lack… Our football is a little different to British football. I warned the guys, told them about it. Yesterday, during training, I saw something wrong. Stopped classes, talked to them…
Scotland head coach Steve Clarke: “The performance was really good, congratulations to the players.
“It was an open game, not many chances, then we got on top, and the first goal was always going to be crucial and thankfully we got that.
“It took us longer than we thought to get the goal, we missed a few chances and then John does what he does well. From there you can see there’s a good belief and confidence.
“It was nice for two subs to come off the bench and make the scoreline better.”
