UKRAINE manager Oleksandr Petrakov last night blamed injuries for his side’s failure to repeat their Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final win over Scotland at Hampden tonight.
Petrakov was missing Arsenal player Oleksandr Zinchenko and several other established internationalists in the Nations League match with Steve Clarke’s team.
He admitted the visitors, who now take on Armenia in Yerevan on Saturday, deserved to lose 3-0 and surrender top spot in their section to their hosts.
The 65-year-old, whose team meets Scotland in Poland on Tuesday in an encounter which will decide who tops the section and secures a Euro 2024 play-off spot, feels Ukraine are missing their backbone.
“The main difference was that out main players, our key players, were not on the pitch,” he said.
“There is a whole list of players missing, players who are the backbone of the team, like Oleksandr Zinchenko and others.
“I gave a chance to others young players to show they could substitute the big boys. But they didn’t do so.
“Our performance in the first-half was okay, but we all saw the performance nosedive in the second-half.
“I actually saw in training on Tuesday this could happen and stopped the session to warn the players. But it didn’t help. We lost fair and square.
“We will now have a talk with the players and see what went wrong and draw some conclusions. With games still to play I am still optimistic we can take first spot in the group.”
