Commiserations to Scott McTominay as Scotland suffer World Cup heartbreak

Ukraine are one game away from qualifying for the World Cup after winning their first competitive match since the country was invaded by Russia. They will take on Wales in the play-off final for a place at the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

It comes as a blow to Scotland, who missed out on a chance at clinching a place at the tournament, but we’re only really thinking about Scott McTominay as he’s one of our own.

The midfielder started the game in defence but he moved into the middle for the second half as Scotland chased the game. They pulled one goal back, but it wasn’t enough because Ukraine scored a third to seal a 3-1 win at Hampden.

McTominay didn’t exactly pull up trees with his performance, although played out of position, yet it was a similar display to what we’ve seen all season – blowing hot and cold, losing possession of the ball in dangerous territory.

Scotland v Ukraine live blog courtesy of BBC Sport

He – like many other United players – underperformed this season and it may be a confidence issue for a lot of them, but I hope that next season Erik ten Hag can get the best out of the group he keeps at the club this summer.

While we send our commiserations to McTominay, it’s perhaps a boost for United that we’ll have players recharged after the tournament ends, though I’m unsure how big of a role he will have in Ten Hag’s team.

Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk scored the goals for give the Ukrainians some hope of World Cup qualification. The match had been moved from Match to give Ukraine the chance to fulfil the fixture, with six of tonight’s starting line-up still contracted to Ukrainian clubs and had not played competitively for months.

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