The Ukrainian blue-and-yellow team arrived in Glasgow in the afternoon. Exactly four hours of flight from Bucharest - and the Ukraine national team found itself at the airport of Scotland's largest city.

After passing passport control in a building located 100 meters away from where the MAU plane was parked, the players immediately boarded a bus and were at the Crown Plaza hotel within half an hour. This will be their residence for several days.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Unlike Amsterdam, no one greeted the Ukrainian team near the hotel except for two Ukrainian reporters who filmed the arrival of the team from a distance greater than necessary for social distancing. Generally speaking, it was quite empty on the streets of Glasgow during the day. Only when heading to the evening training did our national team feel a gathering of people in the city due to traffic congestion at rush hour.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

The famous Hampden Park stadium was also impressive in size and... emptiness, although this time it was expected as there cannot be spectators at a pre-match training session. However, considering the strict quarantine requirements for entering the UK, reinforced locally, neither Ukrainian nor Swedish fans will be able to attend the match - except those ethnic representatives of these nationalities who live here. Therefore, out of 12 thousand seats that are allowed by authorities on this 50-thousand capacity stadium, at best only half will be filled tomorrow during the broadcast of the round-of-16 European Championship game. So, large Scottish flags painted on Hampden's stands will likely be quite noticeable.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

The Ukrainian diaspora in the UK promises to come to Glasgow tomorrow, filling the city's streets with Ukrainian spirit. It is known that British Ukrainians traditionally support their national team wherever they are around the world, and due to the pandemic have not had such an opportunity for a long time, so it is unlikely they will miss this unique chance. In any case, the Ukraine national team relies heavily on the support of its devoted fans!

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Today at Hampden Park, all 25 footballers trained. Oleksandr Zubkov continued to work individually but has already had several good touches with the ball. At the beginning of training, Andriy Shevchenko greeted the birthday boy in the center - one of the most experienced players of blue-and-yellow, Andriy Pyatov, who turned 37 today. The team celebrated their captain's birthday with warm applause, and later there was a traditional sweet treat for the occasion - a birthday cake. Moreover, it is a double celebration as Ukraine celebrates Constitution Day today.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Ultimately, if we look at the essence of the matter, the mood in the team is positive but focused and highly motivated. Everyone understands how unique tomorrow's match will be for them - the first time Ukraine has ever reached a European Championship knockout stage. So all the guys are ready to give their utmost effort to achieve what the whole country dreams about.

Today, the team conducted a full pre-match training session during which the coaching staff had an opportunity to work on tomorrow's game plan and determine the starting lineup for the match. So all thoughts and mindset are focused on the game.

Alexander Hlynskyi, press secretary of the national team of Ukraine