Scotland (National Football)

Ukraine is one win away from qualifying for the 2022 World Cup after a 3-1 win over Scotland in Wednesday's playoff semifinal.

After winning in a road environment in Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland, Ukraine will now travel to face Wales in Cardiff on Saturday with the winner earning a ticket to Qatar.

The UEFA qualifying playoff was initially scheduled to take place in March, but it was postponed because of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. The national team didn't return to the pitch until participating in a friendly in May.

Ukraine came out strong against Scotland and earned a win thanks to goals from Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk.

The visiting team came out with a lot of energy and created several quality attempts before finally breaking through in the 33rd minute. Yarmolenko beat the back line and came through with an outstanding finish to give his side the 1-0 advantage:

Early in the second half, Ukraine doubled the lead on a header from Yaremchuk:

Though Scotland has a roster featuring several Premier League players, the squad was thoroughly outplayed for much of the match.

Ukraine controlled 58 percent of possession and had eight shots on goal, compared to just four for Scotland.

There was still drama late as Scotland finally got on the scoresheet in the 79th minute. Callum McGregor took advantage of a mistake from goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan to cut the margin to 2-1.

Scotland still couldn't find the equalizer, and Ukraine finally sealed it in the 95th minute:

The squad will try to keep the momentum for four more days with Wales looming in the final round of the playoff.

Wales defeated Austria in the previous round behind two goals from Gareth Bale.    

Liverpool's Andy Robertson and Manchester United's Scott McTominay have both withdrawn from Scotland's squad for their UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers against Cyprus and Kazakhstan. 

Per BBC Sport, Scotland captain Robertson, who played 90 minutes for Liverpool in their 3-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday, will not travel to Cyprus for Saturday's Group I match, but he will stay with the squad in the build-up.

McTominay, meanwhile, has looked a doubt for Scotland's double-header since injuring himself at Old Trafford late in United's 3-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday:

Red Devils manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer explained after the victory what had happened to the in-form midfielder, per Charlotte Duncker of the Manchester Evening News:

"He went over on his ankle, it's a painful one sometimes that's. ... I've had one, I was out for eight weeks, but then again sometimes you have one and you're back in two weeks. I don't know, he's in for a scan tomorrow and then we'll have to see, with the ice there. But it looked painful, Scotty's not one for rolling around."

Bournemouth winger Ryan Fraser has also pulled out of the squad.

Steve Clarke's Scotland side cannot qualify for Euro 2020 even if they win both their matches in the coming week.

A perfect return of six points against Cyprus and Kazakhstan would only move them onto 15 points in Group I, and Belgium and Russia already have 24 and 21 points, respectively.

Clarke will want two good performances, though, to finish off the campaign, which has largely been a disappointment.

Scotland have lost four of their last five matches in qualifying, with their only win of that run coming against San Marino in October.

The absence of Robertson, McTominay and Fraser will impact Scotland's chances of beating Cyprus and Kazakhstan given their importance to the team.

But it will potentially give Clarke a chance to experiment with his squad ahead of Scotland's play-off semi-final in March, which they have qualified for after topping their group in the 2018-19 UEFA Nations League.