Ultimate Ukraine football icon Oleg Blokhin has urged players to block out the noise over criticism over their World Cup preparation before they face Scotland.
Steve Clarke 's side finally face the war-torn nation on Wednesday at Hampden, but the Ukrainians have not played a competitive match for eight months.
They have spent the past month at a training base in Slovenia and played three friendly matches against Borussia Monchengladbach, Rijeka and Empoli.
But they have heavily criticised by a number of Ukrainian football personalities and ex-managers for failing to arrange a final friendly match this week, despite offers to play six different clubs and countries.
Manager Oleksandr Petrakov instead played a friendly match between the two teams in his squad and claimed the decision was on him.
Blokhin remains the only Ukrainian player to have won the Ballon d'Or and managed his country twice. He is the all-time top goalscorer record for both Dynamo Kyiv and the Soviet Union, as well as being the overall top goalscorer in the history of the Soviet leagues.
And the 69-year-old, who was manager of Ukraine in their only World Cup appearance in 2006 and also took charge at Euro 2012, reckons they can overcome the odds and beat Scotland...and then Wales in the final.
He said: "I am very confident these guys will beat Scotland and not only that, I think they will beat Wales and get to Qatar.
"I keep hearing about the fact we have only played challenge matches, but listen, footballers don't play friendlies. They don't know how to.
"UEFA did a great job by arranging for them to go to Slovenia and use their facilities. A month of this will have allowed us to prepare fully for the games.
"Everything can be fixed by training and they will have had a lot of sessions.
"Yes, we will need some luck because it won't be easy in Glasgow. But I think it will come down to who is more up for the fight and our motivation could not be higher.
"I said to some of our players when the draw was made that I need to go to Qatar because it's a country I have never visited. And I firmly believe they will."
Meanwhile, Atalanta star Ruslan Malinovsky insisted their inter-squad game, where one of the sides adopted the same tactics as Scotland use, will be ideal preparation for the semi-final in Glasgow on Wednesday.
The friendly match ended in a 1-1 draw and Petrakov declared himself satisfied with the work-out.
And Malinovsky said: "There was a really good, high-tempo to the game and it was great preparation for the game in Scotland.
"We were asked to treat this game as official, so all the guys performed 100%. The main thing was to endure 90 minutes physically, to prepare and practice some tactical moments in defence and attack."
