Dmytro Chygrynskiy is predicting a brawl at Hampden today as Ukraine seek to inflict a damaging blow to Scotland's Euro 2008 ambitions.
The tough-tackling Shakhtar Donetsk captain is hoping to be at the heart of his country's defence for the vital Group B qualifier. Ukraine must win to retain even a faint hope of reaching the finals and Chygrynskiy believes they should meet fire with fire to combat an expected aggressive approach from Alex McLeish's men.
"The Scots are playing every match as if it was their final battle," said Chygrynskiy, who was suspended for his club's 2-0 Champions League win over Celtic last month. "They will be even more determined taking into consideration the fact they are close to advancing from the group. In my mind, they are ready to play not for 90 or 95 minutes but as long as they would have to. There will be a brawl.
"We realise that the Scots will put us under physical pressure, and not only in their half of the field. We shall have to play fast and low. This is very important. Our chances will rise once we have possession."
Ukraine dropped five points in their matches against Georgia and Italy last month to slip to the fringe of the qualification picture. Chygrynskiy, though, has urged his team-mates not to concede hope of reaching Austria and Switzerland until arithmetically impossible. Oleh Blokhin's side face the Faroe Islands at home on Wednesday and could be revitalised by a six-point haul.
"Only victory would satisfy me from this game," said Chygrynskiy. "This is natural. But if we are talking about our chances of making the finals, even if they are not very good, then we must win in Glasgow. Every footballer playing for his country must give out all his strength and energy.
"All the players are in a good mood. This is how it has always been in the national team. The boys have been training with pleasure and determination. You know, sometimes when a team feels no pressure they are able to deliver a very impressive performance. If we win our next two matches who knows what can happen? But first and foremost we are playing for national prestige."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article