Of course, as Zinchenko sees it, there is no need to talk about motivation at all. He said: “This game is one of the most important in my life.”
Preparation in Slovenia
The path to a World Cup ticket will not be easy, and Zinchenko will know that too. Just the thing with the game practice. While Scotland’s footballers have just finished their season, Ukraine’s squad includes a number of players who haven’t played a competitive game for months.
After all, the national team of Ukraine played a benefit game against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The team prepared in Slovenia.
Ukraine and EURO 2020 – Memories of another time
At the European Championships a year ago, Ukraine played bravely and they succeeded. It was also thanks to Zinchenko that his country still made it to the quarter-finals. Not even a year later, the pictures from back then seem like they are from another time. “When the war started it was hard to focus on football”said Zinchenko. All his thoughts were with the Ukrainians.
Andriy Yarmolenko, 32, takes a similar view, he is the second outstanding footballer in the Ukraine squad. Like Zinchenko, Yarmolenko also plays in England and the season continued for him even after the start of the war. And yet suddenly nothing was the way it used to be. Yarmolenko said: “It’s so hard to think about football right now. The Russian army is killing people in Ukraine every day.”
The jerseys are reminiscent of better times
Most recently, in the benefit game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Ukrainians wore jerseys with numbers formed from the names of the cities attacked. On the chest was an outline of a Ukraine map that read United for Ukraine.
Ukraine are not allowed to wear these shirts against Scotland, political messages are not allowed in World Cup playoffs. Instead, Ukraine will play in EURO 2020 kits.
“Do everything to get to the World Cup”
Midfielder Taras Stepanenko, 32, also recently gave an interview to the BBC. In it he also spoke about a message that he has received many times recently. “We get”said Stepanenko, “Constant messages from our soldiers and they have only one mission: Please do everything to get to the World Cup.”