Steve Clarke: Scotland players will 'suffer together' after Ukraine play-off loss

Steve Clarke says his Scotland players will “suffer together” after a disappointing end to the World Cup qualification campaign at Hampden Park on Wednesday evening.

The home team were beaten 3-1 by Ukraine who advance to meet Wales in Cardiff on Sunday even for the play-off final and a spot at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

After an promising opening, Ukraine dominated proceedings and went in front through Andriy Yarmolenko. Clarke made a change at the break, removing Lyndon Dykes for Ryan Christie, but Roman Yaremchuk doubled the advantage shortly after the restart.

Callum McGregor gave some hope by reducing the arrears with ten minutes remaining but Artem Dovbyk settled the result in injury-time.

A disappointed Steve Clarke at full-time after his Scotland side lost to Ukraine in the World Cup qualification play-offs. Picture: SNS

“It’s a disappointing night. You have to be honest, the best team on the night won,” Clarke told Sky Sports.

“Congratulations to Ukraine. I wish them luck when they go to Cardiff. I have to wish the Welsh luck as well. It should be a great game. It’s just a shame we won’t be involved.

“It’s always difficult to say straight after the game, but we didn’t play enough. We didn’t get the ball down despite us having two ball-playing midfielders, but they pressed us well and forced us to go longer. I made the change at half-time but we didn’t give ourselves the chance to utilise that change because we were 2-0 down very early in the second half.

“Now is the night to suffer. We suffer together. But we can’t forget the strides we have made the last three years. We’ll suffer together and try and build into the Nations League campaign.”

Message from the editor

Thank you for reading this article. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.