(Reuters) – Scotland captain Andy Robertson rued his side’s limp display in Wednesday’s World Cup playoff against Ukraine and apologised to fans after the defeat in Glasgow ended their hopes of a first appearance at the global soccer showpiece in 24 years.
Goals from Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk fired Ukraine to a 3-1 win in the national team’s first competitive game since Russia’s invasion of their country. They face Wales on Sunday for a spot in the finals in Qatar.
“It’s hugely disappointing as we’ve waited a long time for this game. Our performances beforehand were really good but to be honest we didn’t really show up,” Robertson told reporters.
“That’s the World Cup gone for another four years … all we can say is sorry to the fans in here and back home.”
Scotland went 2-0 down before pulling one back through Callum McGregor in the 79th minute but were outplayed by a superior Ukrainian side who dedicated the victory to people back home.
Substitute Dovbyk sealed the win in stoppage time with a goal on the counter-attack after Scotland threw players forward in search of an equaliser.
“We had to try and stay in the game but we didn’t manage that … unfortunately, it’s passed us by now and, after a really positive campaign, we’ve let ourselves down tonight,” added Liverpool left back Robertson.
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
