The final tickets for the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be handed out in the upcoming days as Wales and Ukraine will be battling for the last European spot on Sunday.
Wales are hosting the match in Cardiff but bookmaker 10bet gives a slight edge to the Ukrainians offering odds at 1.86 for them to advance to the World Cup finals. The odds are at 1.95 for Wales to do the business in front of their fans.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: June 3rd, 5:00 P.M. (EST)
Ukraine’s success would be very special, of course, and the squad will definitely have the backing of a lot of neutral fans on Sunday. The team finds itself in an incredibly tough spot, but the current situation in Ukraine is also providing the players with a lot of motivation. As manager Oleksandr Petrakov said after Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Scotland – the victory was not for him nor the team, it was for the country.
With only three defeats suffered since the start of 2021, Ukraine would be well worthy of a World Cup berth as well. They had a bit of a rough ride after the Euros last year when Andriy Shevchenko decided to step down as manager and the new era under Petrakov hasn’t brought the team a lot of wins, but they haven’t taken any losses either.
Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk formed a deadly duo at the Euros and they were key figures in Wednesday’s win as well putting the team 2-0 up before Artem Dovbyk sealed the win in stoppage time.
Yarmolenko’s spell at West Ham was a disappointment as he battled multiple injuries, but he’s a very gifted footballer and tends to save his best performances for his country. The 32-year-old has scored 45 goals for Ukraine, which puts him behind only Shevchenko.
Yaremchuk is looking to get back into rhythm in front of the goal after his debut campaign for Benfica didn’t go according to plan. The 26-year-old forward, who had 20 goals in 34 games for Gent in the Belgian top flight in 2020-21, managed just nine goals across all competitions for the Portuguese giants.
Wales, of course, will mostly look to Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey to produce a match-winning moment. The latter has registered four goal involvements in his last four games for Wales and Bale has already had one massive performance in the playoff when he scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Austria in the semifinals.
The Dragons have played at the World Cup only once before and it was all the way back in 1958. Getting to Qatar would be a major achievement for the team and we can expect to see them give absolutely everything to qualify for the tournament.
