Match stats

  • This is the first meeting of the sides since October 2007 in a European Championship qualifier, with the Scots winning 3-1 through goals from Kenny Miller, Lee McCulloch and James McFadden.
  • Ukraine's sole victory over Scotland came in October 2006, Oleksandr Kucher and Andriy Shevchenko scoring in Kyiv.
  • Since losing consecutive World Cup qualifiers in October/November 2016 against Slovakia and England, Scotland have only lost one of their last 16 such games - a 2-0 defeat to Denmark in September 2021 - and won 11.
  • This will be the fifth time Ukraine have competed in a World Cup qualification play-off, failing to progress from any so far: in 1997 v Croatia (lost 3-1), 2001 v Germany (2-5), 2009 v Greece (0-1) and 2013 v France (2-3).
  • Scotland have won seven qualifiers during this campaign, their joint-most ever. They also won seven in qualifying for the 1998 tournament, which was the last time they reached the finals.
  • This is Scotland's first World Cup play-off since 1985, when they faced Australia for a place at the 1986 finals. In the first leg, they won 2-0 at Hampden with goals from Davie Cooper and Frank McAvennie and drew 0-0 in Melbourne.
  • Both John McGinn and Lyndon Dykes have scored four goals in this campaign for Scotland. The last Scottish player to net more goals in a single campaign was Kevin Gallacher in qualifying for the 1998 finals (six).