Scotland manager Steve Clarke is intent on inflicting three defeats on Ukraine in 2022 after being pitted against them in the UEFA Nations League.
The Scots were already due to face the Euro 2020 quarter-finalists in a World Cup play-off semi-final at Hampden. And now they will meet them twice more within a matter of months after being drawn alongside Ukraine, the Republic of Ireland and Armenia in Thursday’s Nations League draw.
There are due to be four matchdays in June and a further two in September, with the fixtures set to be confirmed on Friday.
Manager Clarke told the Scottish Football Association website: “Obviously we have Ukraine in the World Cup play-offs. We will know them well by the end of the Nations League, we will have played them three times. Hopefully we find a way to beat them three times.
“Being drawn against Ukraine tonight doesn’t add anything to the play-off match at all. The game in March, everyone knows the magnitude of that game and the importance of it.”
Clarke is expecting Nations League Group B1 to be a competitive one between four relatively evenly matched teams.
He said: “When you’re in a draw with teams of the same level you’re going to expect three difficult opponents. That’s what we got. It’s a good draw. The games against the Republic of Ireland will always be good for the supporters and hopefully we can make them good on the pitch for both sets of fans.
“Armenia is a new one, Scotland haven’t played them before so a first for Scotland and a first for Armenia. They are a relatively new nation and have had a couple of good results. They beat Romania and Iceland, so they are a decent team. Obviously the headline player for them will be (Henrikh) Mkhitaryan, who was at Arsenal and Man United, now at Roma. So three good opponents and something to look forward to in the summer.”
The Scots know that winning their section would allow them to move up to the A groups, while also giving them a good chance of being among the second seeds for Euro 2024 qualification.
Clarke, whose side landed a Euro 2020 play-off spot after winning their first Nations League group in 2018, added: “The nature of the Nations League is that it’s competitive and balanced. You are drawn against teams who are on a similar level to you.
“That’s why you get the A groups, the B groups and the C groups. Hopefully we do enough to win the section and get into the A groups but we are going to have six difficult matches.”
Ireland boss Stephen Kenny is excited about seeing his team try to build on their promising recent form in the Nations League.
He said: “It’s going to be a competitive group. All the teams are capable of taking points off each other. It’s very exciting from our point of view.
“We can see the improvement in our team, because apart from (Cristiano) Ronaldo’s 97th-minute winner (for Portugal in a World Cup qualifier in September) that’s our only defeat in 10 games.
“We’re looking forward to the games, having those four games in 10 or 11 days (in June) is very exciting.
“They’re competitive games and we’ve had a period now where we’ve been building a team in the World Cup qualifiers and we finished strongly.
“We’re third seeds in the group so people wouldn’t expect us to finish top but that certainly would be our ambition.”
