Ukraine fans celebrate after their side beat Scotland in Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, on June 1, 2022 [Lee Smith\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut it might take time for their compatriots on the front lines to discover the result in Wales.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a really hard situation in Ukraine and not everyone has the chance to watch football,\u201d coach Oleksandr Petrakov said through a translator.<\/p>\n
“I don’t communicate with any soldiers but the team writes to soldiers and even received a flag from the war which they promised to hang in the dressing room,” he said.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Ukrainians will step out on the field to face a Wales team trying to return to the FIFA showpiece after an even longer wait, having last appeared in the finals in 1958.<\/p>\n
Wales is expected to be carried, as usual, by its highly partisan and emotional fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cSport is sport and we don’t expect presents or an unfair win,\u201d Karavayev said.<\/p>\n
“We know how hard it is and this is the most important game in our lives. But we wish to win and we will do everything possible to do that. “<\/p>\n
There is much sympathy for Ukraine from Wales captain Gareth Bale, but also a ruthless sporting determination for his own team to qualify.<\/p>\n
So would Bale apologise to Ukraine for snatching away its own World Cup dream?<\/p>\n
\u201cAs horrible as it sounds, no,\u201d Bale responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a game of football and it is a competition that we want to get to as well,\u201d Bale said.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the world feels for Ukraine but for this game, it’s a game of football, \u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is sport, it unites everybody. We understand what it will do for Ukraine but we want to get to the World Cup. It is not coming from a horrible place, but it is coming from our country, our hearts. We want to deliver for our own fans. “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian football team has extra inspiration in their locker room: A flag sent by soldiers fighting on the front line. Far from battlefields and Russian invaders, the Ukrainian footballers exempted from military service are trying to complete the mission to lead their country to the World Cup. When they prepare to face Wales on Sunday …<\/p>\n
Backed by front-line support, Ukraine hopes for World Cup spot | News<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[296,146,17478],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AP22152718595082.jpg?resize=1200,630","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}