UKRAINE midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko broke down in tears at Hampden tonight as he vowed to make the people of his war-torn country proud with a victory over Scotland in the Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final.
The Manchester City midfielder was visibly upset as he spoke to the media ahead of his national team’s first competitive fixture since the Russian invasion back in February.
Zinchencko thanked the Scottish coaching staff, players and people for their backing ahead of the rescheduled Path A match in Glasgow tomorrow evening.
But the 25-year-old admitted that he is determined to help Oleksandr Petrakov’s side to defeat Steve Clarke’s team and raise the morale of his besieged homeland.
“Firstly I would like to extend my gratitude to the Scottish national team, to the coaching staff, the players and the whole lot of the Scottish people who have provided Ukraine with this incredible help,” he said.
“I spoke to some of the players and the coaching staff before and they expressed their feelings towards Ukraine, for which we are very grateful.
“Secondly, our mood I would describe as a fighting mood. Everyone understands what is going on in Ukraine these days, what the situation is like on the ground. That’s why I would say our motivation is definitely 100 per cent to win.”
Zinchenko added: “Every Ukrainian wants one thing – to stop this war. I have spoken with people from all around the world, from different countries.
“I have also spoken to some Ukrainian kids who just don’t understand what’s happening back in Ukraine. They only want the war to stop. They have one dream, to stop the war.
“When it comes to football, the Ukrainian team have their own dream. We want to go to the World Cup, we want to give this incredible emotion to the Ukrainians because Ukrainians deserve it so very much at this moment.
“Obviously, not many people (will be able to watch the game). I hope there will still be a lot of people, but we totally understand the situation that maybe there is no opportunity for a lot of Ukrainian people to watch the game tomorrow.
“But I am pretty sure that all Ukrainian people who have the opportunity will watch us. We are going to feel this 100 per cent. We can speak a lot, but that is what we are going to try and do on the pitch tomorrow, try to make everyone proud.”
