Scotland vs Ukraine date confirmed by SFA as Celtic stars receive World Cup clarity

By David Walton

April 14, 2022

The SFA have today managed to provide clarity over Scotland’s World Cup qualifying situation as their date with Ukraine will take place on June 1st.

Confusion has surrounded when the fixture would be able to go ahead due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia. However, the SFA has confirmed that the World Cup playoff clash will take place early this summer.

Celtic stars Greg Taylor and Callum McGregor were both called up for the recent friendlies against Poland and Austria respectively. However, Anthony Ralston and James Forrest will also be doing their utmost to push themselves ahead of these fixtures and potentially for the World Cup at the end of the year.

Scotland were originally due to face Ukraine back in March, with both nations now knowing that the winner will face Wales in Cardiff on June 5th if they get through their semi-final playoff.

Scotland’s Nations League fixtures that were due to be played in June have now been rescheduled to accommodate the World Cup qualifying schedule. A triple-header of Nations League matches will follow the World Cup games in June, meaning the Celtic players involved could play as many as 5 games during the break [SFA].

Celtic will likely reconvene for pre-season at the end of that month, and will be hoping all of their international players get through unscathed.

A chance for some Celtic players to get a big pre-season boost

If Scotland do manage to get through their World Cup qualification matches, then it will give incredible momentum to the Celtic players involved.

Words probably can’t describe just how big a boost it would be for them. The prospect of representing their country in a World Cup for the first time? Securing that achievement this summer would be monumental for them.

Of course, the circumstances surrounding the game against Ukraine have been horrific. It’s put football into perspective. But it’s positive to see that all players involved have now been given some clarity regarding the match.

From a Celtic perspective, hopefully we have as many players involved as possible. Ralston in particular has long since deserved a call-up to Steve Clarke’s squad, but the truth is we won’t hold our breath. Forrest, meanwhile, has a big task on his hands breaking back into the Celtic first-team at the moment.

So as things stand it’s really up in the air regarding how many of our players will be involved. With the season already over at that stage however, it won’t cause supporters too many concerns.

In other news, Bodo/Glimt’s Ola Solbakken can talk to clubs in July; Celtic should be one of them