CALLUM McGregor has dismissed suggestions Ukraine will be more motivated than Scotland when the rescheduled Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final kicks off at Hampden on Wednesday night.
Ukraine will take part in their first competitive fixture since the Russian invasion back in February this week and will be determined to lift their entire country with a morale-boosting victory.
Celtic midfielder McGregor admitted he feels for the plight of the Ukrainian people and acknowledged the entire football world will be willing them to succeed.
However, he stressed the prospect of reaching their first World Cup finals since France ’98 will spur on Steve Clarke’s side on and insisted there will be no sentiment when the Path A match gets underway.
“They can’t have more motivation than us,” he said. “We’ve waited a really, really long time to have that opportunity to get back to a World Cup so their motivation can’t be any more than ours.
“We just have to approach the game professionally. We obviously have sympathy for the situation over there and it’s sad to see.
“But we still have a job to do. When the game starts, we have to be just as motivated, if not more so, to win the game.
“That’s our full focus in the days leading up to the game. When we cross that white line, we have to be ready to go.
“When the game kicks off we have to go. I think if anybody expects us to do anything other than that, they’re wrong.
“We appreciate the situation. It’s really tough to see. We flick on the news every day and something else has happened. It’s a horrific situation.
“But we have a game of football to play on Wednesday and they will be just as motivated as us to win.
"That’s sport. When the game comes, you have to put everything to one side and do everything to win.”
McGregor scored for Scotland against Croatia in the Euro 2020 finals last summer and admitted he would love to be involved at Qatar 2022 in November.
“The Euros were really special and I can only think if you get to a World Cup it will be magnified even more than that,” he said. “So the motivation is 100 per cent there for us."
