Good afternoon and welcome to our live Wales blog against Ukraine, and let’s say: let’s go, Ukraine. The World Cup needs you. I’m sorry, Welsh comrades. But for once, you are not the energetic and cheeky underdogs, you are the supporters, the favorites, the ones who want to lose the neutrals. Yes, that’s what it feels like to be English.
The powerful boys from Ukraine won a few days ago in Scotland in Glasgow by 3-1. The Welsh eliminated Austria in their own semi-final. Poland, by beating Sweden, and Portugal, by beating Northern Macedonia, have already gone through this route. They will join Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Croatia, England and Germany to take on the European challenge. I just saw that the Saudis got there too. This should make for some interesting scenes perhaps, given his relationship with the Qataris at this time.
Obviously, many neutrals will take root in Ukraine, but what a chance this has for the Welsh. They haven’t been to the World Cup since 1958 and frankly won’t have much better chances than a one-off match at their own stadium against a team nine places below them in the FIFA rankings (ie 18 plays and 27) .
Gareth Bale is the captain of Wales in his World Cup play-off final against Ukraine in Cardiff.
Wales have made a change since winning the semi-final against Austria in March, with Kieffer Moore once again in good form, replacing Harry Wilson as the Dragons look to qualify for their first World Cup since 1958.
Ukraine is named after the same team that secured its last place by winning 3-1 in Scotland on Wednesday, with Premier League pair Oleksandr Zinchenko and Vitaliy Mykolenko.
kraine plans to resume competitive football in the country in august despite being under attack from russia after president Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved it.
Andriy Pavelko, president of the Ukrainian Football Federation, revealed details to The Associated Press about his talks with Zelenskyy and FIFA and UEFA officials to find a safe way to play men’s and women’s matches at home .
Ukraine was forced to abandon its leagues in February when Russia launched an invasion that, according to Zelenskyy, has killed “at least tens of thousands” of Ukrainian civilians and large areas of many cities and towns bombed as rubble.
But as Russian forces have deployed again to the east and south, fighting has subsided in the area near the capital Kyiv and elsewhere. There is optimism to pick up the sport to lift the spirits of the nation, which is trying to qualify for the World Cup on Sunday by winning in Wales.