Taras STEPANENKO: “The army wants us to do everything to qualify for the 2022 World Cup”

Taras Stepanenko, midfielder of the Ukrainian national team, talked about the preparations for the playoff match with Scotland in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

“We were preparing for the resumption of the championship, but on February 24 the war started. About a month after that, he dealt with family safety and did not train. Then I trained with a team in Romania, and then training with Shakhtar in Turkey began. Now in Slovenia “I think we’ll have enough time to prepare for Scotland.”

“Of course, psychologically all this is difficult because you constantly read the news about the situation in Ukraine. But we understand the importance of the match against Scotland, we need to show ourselves at a moment like this. Haven’t played for a long time? This is not the first in my career. There was a hiatus with the outbreak of war in 2014 and Shakhtar moved from Donetsk. But now we have a war in the whole region, there is no opportunity to organize sporting events. You have to train individually.”

“Many people in Ukraine love football, including most of the military we communicate with, and they want us to do everything to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. If we succeed, it will give our country some hope. It would be a very emotional moment.”

“We will play Scotland at the Hampden Stadium, where we beat Sweden at Euro 2020, so this is a happy arena for us. Let’s see what happens,” said Stepanenko.