Scotland Skipper Andrew Roberson had issued apologies to Scotland Fans after they were eliminated by Ukraine in a World Cup semi-finals play-off at Hampden Park on Wednesday.
The Tartan Terriers saw their chance of qualifying for the ninth World Cup slip through their hands after losing to Ukraine on an emotional night at Hampden Park in Scotland thanks to goals from Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk, and Artem Dovbyk despite scoring one goal through Callum McGregor.
What did Robertson say?
Speaking after the game, the Liverpool left-back said:‘It’s hugely disappointing.
We have waited a long time for this game and our performances beforehand have been really good but, to be honest, we didn’t really show up. Ukraine settled into the game quicker than us and that continued.
‘We knew they were going to get tired and that was the case but we gave ourselves too much of an uphill battle.
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‘We were pushing at the end and left ourselves open to the counterattack, but you have to do that. We didn’t play the way we wanted to and that’s the most disappointing thing.
‘Unfortunately, it’s passed us by now and, after a really positive campaign, we’ve let ourselves down tonight.
‘It’s been a positive campaign, finishing second and getting a home play-off and we have to hurt. That’s the World Cup gone for another four years and that’s really hard because we all had dreams of trying to play in that big tournament.
‘We didn’t put in a performance that justified that tonight. There will be scrutiny, we will be under fire. That’s the way of it but we have to stick together as a group.
‘We’ve taken massive strides over the past couple of years and there will be a time where we have to put it in perspective but tonight is not that night.
‘All we can say is sorry to the fans in here and back home for disappointing them.’
Meanwhile, Scotland manager Steve Clarke believes Ukraine was the better side.
Steve Clarke said: “The best team won. It’s disappointing for us but sometimes the opposition plays better than you and that was the case tonight.
“In the first half, what I saw was we didn’t play enough through the midfield. I was trying to get Billy Gilmour and Callum McGregor on the ball more so we could make passes.
“The idea was still to play through the lines and get one of the strikers on the ball in that position. Sometimes you have to credit the opposition and tonight Ukraine was a good team.”
