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League B - Group 1-4 Fixtures - 21-24th September, 2022


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all kick-offs 19.45 (BST) unless stated

GROUP B1
Wednesday 21st September, 2022
Scotland vs Ukraine, 19.45

Saturday 24th September, 2022
Armenia vs Ukraine, 14.00
Scotland vs Republic of Ireland, 19.45

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- Armenia will be relegated to League C if they lose and Republic of Ireland win


GROUP B2
Saturday 24th September, 2022
Iceland P-P Russia
Israel vs Albania

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GROUP B3
Friday 23rd September, 2022
Bosnia & Herzegovina vs Montenegro
Finland vs Romania

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- Bosnia will be promoted to League A if they beat Montenegro
- Romania will be relegated to League C if they lose against Finland

 

GROUP B4
Saturday 24th September, 2022
Slovenia vs Norway, 17.00
Serbia vs Sweden

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- Norway can qualify for League A if they can better Serbia's result
- Slovenia are relegated to League C if they lose and Sweden win

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Well Scotland will meet Ukraine once again in a competitive match today at Hampden Park, as they did on the 1st of June this summer. This time it is a Nations League match, as opposed to a World Cup qualifier. Ukraine defeated Scotland by 3 goals to 1 goal in that World Cup qualifier in June, but Scotland will no doubt want to get some revenge for that defeat by getting a positive result this evening.

Lets preview what the starting line-up and what the formation is likely to look like in this match.

 

SCOTLAND

Scotland are likely to start with the veteran Craig Gordon as their goalkeeper today. He put in some great performances for Scotland in several matches in June, despite Scotland's mixed results.

In defence, Clarke will most likely opt for 3 central defenders. Jack Hendry, who is on loan at Serie A side Cremonese from Club Brugge, will probably start in central defence ahead of Scott McKenna. Nottingham Forest's Mckenna will likely have to settle for a place on the bench today, with Arsenal's Kieran Tierney likely flanking Hendry as the left sided central defender, while Manchester United's Scott McTominay will probably be the right sided central defender. The fullbacks/wingbacks will likely be Everton's Nathan Patterson at right wingback, while the left wingback role will probably go to Brentford's Aaron Hickey, as Andy Robertson is out injured. Hickey should his spot on the left flank ahead of Celtic's Greg Taylor.

In midfield, the competition is really tough. Callum McGregor of Celtic, will no doubt start, as he has almost always been impressive when playing for Scotland. Alongside him, Brighton's gifted young gun Billy Gilmour is likely to get the nod ahead of the likes of the more experienced Stuart Armstrong of Southampton or Ryan Jack of Rangers. Scotland's talisman and Aston Villa's captain, John McGinn should play just in front of McGregor and Gilmour, in a slightly more advanced attacking midfield and he should be joined in the attacking midfield area by Bournemouth's Ryan Christie.

McGinn and Christie will both supply support from their attacking midfield roles for Scotland's centre-forward Che Adams, who plays his club football for Southampton. Ryan Fraser of Newcastle United is another attacking option, who could come off the bench as a sub if needed.

So for Scotland, the following starting 11 and formation looks likely:

                                                                                                             Craig Gordon (Hearts)

                                      Scott McTominay (Manchester United) - Jack Hendry (Cremonese) - Kieran Tierney (Arsenal)

    Nathan Patterson (Everton)                                                                                                                                            Aaron Hickey (Brentford)

                                                           Billy Gilmour (Brighton & Hove Albion)      Callum McGregor (Celtic)

                                                     Ryan Christie (AFC Bournemouth)                             John McGinn (Aston Villa)

                                                                                                         Che Adams (Southampton)

 

UKRAINE

For the visitors Ukraine, it will be Andriy Lunin of Real Madrid and Anatoliy Trubin of Shakhtar Donetsk, who will battle it out to start in place of regular first choice keeper Bushchan who is injured. I think that Lunin will probably start ahead of Trubin.

In defence, Club Brugge's Eduard Sobol is injured. Petrakov, Ukraine's manager is likely to opt for the tried and tested central defensive partnership of Matviyenko and Zabarnyi. The right-back position will probably go to Karavayev, while Everton's Mykolenko will no doubt start at left-back.

The midfield of Ukraine will have to do without two key players in Zinchenko and Shaparenko, both of whom are injured. Arsenal's Zinchenko was one of the best players on the pitch, when Ukraine beat Scotland in June, he gave an excellent performance from midfield. In their absence, it is likely that Viktor Kovalenko of Italian Serie A side Spezia could start. Sydorchuk of Dynamo Kyiv is likely to start alongside him in midfield ahead of the likes of Stepanenko of Shakhtar Donetsk and Ihnatenko of Bordeaux. In the attacking midfield position, just in front of Kovalenko and Sydorchuk, Ruslan Malinovskyi of Atalanta should undoubtedly start. Malinovskyi will have a bigger play-making responsibility now that Zinchenko and Shaparenko have been ruled out of this match through injuries.

The left winger position will be battled out between the Viktor Tsyhankov of Dynamo Kyiv and the veteran former West Ham winger Andriy Yarmolenko. Yarmolenko, who now plays in the UAE for Al-Ain, will probably start ahead of Tsyhankov, because of his immense experience. On the right flank, Ukraine's new wonder kid, Mikhaylo Mudryk is now guaranteed a starting position. Mudryk has made the whole world wake up and pay attention to his incredible skills with some impressive performances this season, both for Ukraine and for Shakhtar Donetsk.

Up front, Roman Yaremchuk of Club Brugge should start ahead of the popular Artem Dovbyk. Yaremchuk was one of Ukraine's star performers at last summer's Euros and he is a player that Ukraine can almost always trust for goals. 

The following starting 11 and team formation, is most likely for Ukraine:

                                                                                                   Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid)

Oleksander Karavayev (Dynamo Kyiv) - Illya Zabarnyi (Dynamo Kyiv) - Mykola Matviyenko (Shakhtar Donetsk) - Vitaliy Mykolenko (Everton)

                                                         Viktor Kovalenko (Spezia)              Serhey Sydorchyuk (Dynamo Kyiv)

         Andriy Yarmolenko (Al-Ain)                      Ruslan Malinovskyi (Atalanta)               Mykhaylo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk)                                                                                                   

                                                                                   Roman Yaremchuk (Club Brugge)

 

This should be a very interesting encounter. Hampden Park Stadium will be packed and Scotland will be highly motivated to get revenge for their loss to Ukraine in June. However, with Ukraine's impressive record at international level and with the recent emergence of the excellent Mudryk, I believe that Ukraine should gain another win over Scotland at Hampden Park. This time however, I think that it will be a more narrow win, so maybe a 2 goals to 1 goal triumph for Ukraine, as opposed to Ukraine's 3-1 win in June. So a narrow win for Ukraine for me here, but it won't be easy at all. Scotland will have learnt a lot from playing Ukraine the first time around and they should make this a much tougher encounter. Zinchenko and Shaparenko's absences are a big blow for Ukraine's midfield, but I still think Ukraine have enough to win this one.                                                                                                                               

 

 

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Well the official starting line-ups are in and there are several differences to the starting line-ups that I anticipated for both sides.

The following is the official Scotland line-up:

                                                                                                        Craig Gordon (Hearts)

                                   Scott McTominay (Manchester Utd) - Jack Hendry (Cremonese) - Scott McKenna (Nottingham Forest)

Nathan Patterson (Everton)                                                                                                                                                    Kieran Tierney (Arsenal)

           Stuart Armstrong (Southampton) - John McGinn (Aston Villa) - Callum McGregor (Celtic) - Ryan Christie (AFC Bournemouth)

                                                                                                      Che Adams (Southampton)

 

The following is the official Ukraine line-up:

                                                                                                    Anatoliy Trubin (S. Donetsk)

Oleksander Karavayev (Dynamo Kyiv) -Valeriy Bondar (S. Donetsk) - Mykola Matviyenko (S. Donetsk) - Bohdan Mykhaylichenko (S. Donetsk)

                                                                                               Taras Stepanenko (S. Donetsk)

         Andriy Yarmolenko (Al-Ain) - Oleksandr Pikhalyonok (Dnipro-1) - Ruslan Malinovskyi (Atalanta) - Mykhaylo Mudryk (S. Donetsk)

                                                                                                     Artem Dovbyk (Dnipro- 1)   

 

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Well it's 0-0 at half-time. Ukraine started the more attacking side in the opening 10 or 15 minutes, but then Scotland started get more in control and create chances, with Ukraine looking to break on the counter attack. I thought the passing was actually very good at times, but Karavayev at right back has been Ukraine's worst player in that 1st half. His passing was pretty poor and he got beaten several times by the Scottish attacking players. It was Karavayev's poor pass to Armstrong, that gave Armstrong that shot on goal that Trubin did very well to block.

Mudryk has been such a livewire in this match, he has pace to burn and it's like the ball is glued to his feat, he was always a threat in the first half, constantly dribbling past the Scottish defenders. It may be 0-0 at half-time, but I have to agree with the commentators that that was a good watch in the 1st half, despite the 0-0 score-line. Hopefully we get some goals though in the 2nd half. 

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Well Armstrong has had Scotland's best chances, that's 3 now in this game. With this latest effort he made the run into the area, but blasted his effort over the bar. Moments earlier he had a shot saved by Trubin. Trubin made a save from Armstrong in the 1st half, as mentioned before.

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Adams has a header hit the cross-bar, then moments later he has another close range header, excellently saved by Trubin. Ukraine now bringing on some of their regulars in response to these Scottish chances. It seems like Yaremchuk and Tsyhankov will be coming on shortly.

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1 hour ago, ScoRoss said:

Absolutely horrendous 'tackle' from Bondar on Che Adams. Somehow only a yellow.

About the only interesting thing from the first 45 minutes.

Horrendous is a stretch. He's properly barged him in the chest. If his arm is higher and is on the face I'd fully be with you. It's an overly strong challenge. Horrendous for me would be breaking his jaw or the equivalent of a late malicious two-footer. 

 

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Well that was a confidence boosting win for Scotland, they played a very good match. McGinn, McGregor and McTominay were excellent. Adams also played well, while Fraser and Dykes both did very well when they came on for the last quarter of an hour, where Fraser set-up both Dykes's goals. The Scottish fans in the packed Hampden Park stadium will no doubt be delighted with this result.

For Ukraine, manager Petrakov really needs to play his best possible team if he wants to take this competition seriously. Zinchenko, Shaparenko, Sobol and Bushchan were ruled out injured when the squad was named. Apparently key defender Zabarnyi and midfielder Kovalenko were also ruled out for injury, it looks like Mykolenko also picked up a knock, a micro injury apparently. However, Mykolenko was on the bench, so I presume his injury isn't too serious and hopefully he should be back soon. But manager Petrakov has to play his best team possible in the next match despite the injuries. Yaremchuk should be starting ahead of Dovbyk every time. The likes of Pikhalnyok has nothing on Tsygankov. Pikhalnyok(3 caps), Bondar(3 caps) and Mikhaylachenko(7 caps) were just nowhere near as good as the regulars. Karavayev was also very poor. Matviyenko was the only defender who couldn't really be blamed today.

I mean Ukraine didn't really miss Bushchan, as Trubin and Lunin are just as good, but the other inexperienced outfield players really let Ukraine down today. Despite the injuries to key players, Petrakov should drop all the inexperienced players and start with the likes of Yaremchuk, Tsygankov, and Mykolenko if he is fit for the next match. Even the likes of Zubkov and Kryvtsov should start ahead of the young inexperienced players. The Ukrainian fans will not be happy with this result, not acceptable. For Scotland, it's onwards and upwards, they should also beat Ireland in their next game.

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6 minutes ago, Stan said:

Horrendous is a stretch. He's properly barged him in the chest. If his arm is higher and is on the face I'd fully be with you. It's an overly strong challenge. Horrendous for me would be breaking his jaw or the equivalent of a late malicious two-footer. 

 

It would have been a sending off in a rugby game! 

Made it all the better seeing him fall over just before McGinn scored.

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10 minutes ago, ScoRoss said:

I'm not sure whether to be happy or more depressed about what happened in June...

Scotland played better than in June, but this Ukraine team were missing key players compared to that match in June. Petrakov even rested some of the regular starters. Not taking anything away from Scotland, they look a strong team and they will be Ukraine's biggest challengers in this group.

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23 minutes ago, Gunnersaurus said:

If Scotland get promoted and England get relegated (which seems likely)we will never hear the end of it. We still hear about when they qualified for the world cup and we didn't in the 70s @CaaC (John)

Well for a small nation, Scotland have produced some excellent players over the years. You can't begrudge them when they win and celebrate.

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7 hours ago, Michael said:

Scotland played better than in June, but this Ukraine team were missing key players compared to that match in June. Petrakov even rested some of the regular starters. Not taking anything away from Scotland, they look a strong team and they will be Ukraine's biggest challengers in this group.

June was a low point in performances against Ukraine and Ireland. Clarke seems to have learnt that without Robertson and Tierney playing, there is little point in playing with a back five as no one is capable of playing the LCB role like Tierney does and offering an attacking threat at the same time. Especially not Liam Cooper, who I've yet to see have a positive performance for Scotland. Having Hendry and McKenna at centre back, with McTominay moved into midfield, still allows them to have players who can make progressive passing out from defence without compromising the midfield as much.

Hickey, after he came on last night, had a much better performance than in June as well. Maybe he was not adequately prepared to play the RWB position then, and Ukraine going with a bold wide front three really took advantage of the wing backs in that game. His strengths are still his attacking qualities, but was very solid defensively at RB yesterday and does give merit to a competition between him and Nathan Patterson about who should be Scotland's RB/RWB in the immediate future.

Although they ended up with three goals, attacking and creating opportunities is still Scotland's main struggle. No one can deny John McGinn's quality as a player, and he did create opportunities and score a goal himself yesterday (quite remarkably he's now on 15 international goals and in Scotland's top ten goalscorers of all time), but he does lack that creativity and spark that a quality No. 10 has. Same for Stuart Armstrong in his role drifting in from the right hand side. Very hard working players and good technically, but lack that special something to create out of nothing. Ryan Christie is probably the closest to being that player.

I expect a few changes for Saturday's game against the Republic of Ireland. As it really only matters about avoiding defeat, as presuming Ukraine will handily take care of their game against Armenia. And sets up the crucial game 'at home' to Scotland next Tuesday.

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On 22/09/2022 at 06:12, ScoRoss said:

June was a low point in performances against Ukraine and Ireland. Clarke seems to have learnt that without Robertson and Tierney playing, there is little point in playing with a back five as no one is capable of playing the LCB role like Tierney does and offering an attacking threat at the same time. Especially not Liam Cooper, who I've yet to see have a positive performance for Scotland. Having Hendry and McKenna at centre back, with McTominay moved into midfield, still allows them to have players who can make progressive passing out from defence without compromising the midfield as much.

Hickey, after he came on last night, had a much better performance than in June as well. Maybe he was not adequately prepared to play the RWB position then, and Ukraine going with a bold wide front three really took advantage of the wing backs in that game. His strengths are still his attacking qualities, but was very solid defensively at RB yesterday and does give merit to a competition between him and Nathan Patterson about who should be Scotland's RB/RWB in the immediate future.

Although they ended up with three goals, attacking and creating opportunities is still Scotland's main struggle. No one can deny John McGinn's quality as a player, and he did create opportunities and score a goal himself yesterday (quite remarkably he's now on 15 international goals and in Scotland's top ten goalscorers of all time), but he does lack that creativity and spark that a quality No. 10 has. Same for Stuart Armstrong in his role drifting in from the right hand side. Very hard working players and good technically, but lack that special something to create out of nothing. Ryan Christie is probably the closest to being that player.

I expect a few changes for Saturday's game against the Republic of Ireland. As it really only matters about avoiding defeat, as presuming Ukraine will handily take care of their game against Armenia. And sets up the crucial game 'at home' to Scotland next Tuesday.

Scotland are starting to look like a very strong outfit and it seems like Clarke is finally getting them to play at their potential. They are a team full of Premier League players and there are some real quality players in the team. An Irish friend of mine said to me recently that he thinks Ireland can get a result against Scotland this evening, but I really disagree after seeing how well Scotland are starting to play. Hendry and McKenna form a solid back two defensive partnership. Tierney is superb both defensively and when it comes to attacking down the left flank. While Hickey provides a real threat down the right flank. McTominay and McGregor for me are hugely influential, their ball winning ability, their energy and their accurate passing distribution of the ball is key for Scotland. Armstrong gets in great attacking positions but I think he sometimes needs to improve on his finishing. Christie is also another real attacking threat. McGinn is the guy though who can unlock the most tightest of defences. When he gets the ball in the final third, he always looks a threat. While Che Adams does a very good role upfront as the target man. He is strong, good in the air and a real presence upfront for Scotland.

Moreover, you have the likes of Gilmour, Ryan Fraser, Ryan Jack and Dykes to come off of the bench. When Robertson and the recently injured Patterson get back to full fitness and are available again, Scotland will be even more stronger. There is honestly no way that Ireland will beat Scotland today by my judgement, despite the fact that Ireland drubbed Scotland 3-0 the last time they played. At Hampden Park, Scotland will be pumped up once again, looking for the 3 points and seeking to avenge the defeat they received from the Irish the last time they met. I think Scotland should win pretty handsomely tonight. The only thing that I can see against them is perhaps the fact that the Irish are well rested, while Scotland only played Ukraine a few days ago. But I think the Scots will overcome some of the fatigue with their motivation to win and they certainly have the quality to win in style.

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Well the line-ups have just been officially named in Yerevan, Armenia. Ukraine manager Petrakov has mixed things up drastically once again, with none of the starting 11 that started against Scotland, starting today against Armenia. He has dropped key players Mudryk, Malinovskyi, Yarmolenko, Stepanenko and defender Matviyenko to the bench. The following is Ukraine's lineup against Armenia today:

                                        Lunin

                   Zabarnyi - Krystov - Kacharaba

    Tymchyk - Sydorchuk - Ihnatenko - Mykolenko

                 Tsygankov - Yaremchuk - Zubkov

The good news is that Zabarnyi and Mykolenko return from injury after having missed the game against Scotland and Yaremchuk starts upfront. Tsygankov's presence is also positive, but again Petrakov seems to be giving game time to the likes of Krystov, Kacharaba, Tymchyk, Ihnatenko and Zubkov who are not usually regular starters. Against Scotland, Ukraine felt the absence of key players like Zinchenko, Zabarnyi, Mykolenko, Kovalenko and Shaparenko through injury as well as Yaremchuk and Tsygankov who he decided oddly not to start. But I guess today, Petrakov is feeling much more confident of the win against an Armenian team who are the weakest in the group, hence his reason for resting key players who are fit and placing them on the bench.

 

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