If ever there has been a time for the phrase ‘putting football into perspective’ it’s been the last couple of weeks.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been horrendous to watch on our TV screens and my heart goes out to all the people living there or have family and friends who do.
Seeing Ukrainian footballers in tears before games across Europe gives you an idea how much torment they are in just now.
It’s against that backdrop that I really can’t see Scotland’s World Cup play-off going ahead later this month.
BREAKING: The Ukrainian FA have asked FIFA and UEFA to postpone their World Cup qualifier against Scotland on March 24, according to Reuters👇
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) March 3, 2022
Let’s pray the fighting stops before then but we have to fear that it won’t.
How can the Ukraine players possibly be expected to prepare properly and get their minds on an important game when there’s such tragedy in their homeland?
Postponement feels like the only possible solution.
Given there’s a window in June that could be used, it’s the right thing to do.
Liverpool and Chelsea took penalty shoot-outs to a new level on Sunday.
To get to 11-10 without a miss was an incredible standard.
Nearly all of them were unstoppable and Virgil Van Dijk’s was the pick of them.
Ice in those veins 🥶
What a penalty, @VirgilvDijk 👏 pic.twitter.com/pAvnpdPA1f
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 28, 2022
For it to end up with the two keepers was brilliant TV.
I was never needed to take one but it came very close once.
I think it was against Partick Thistle in the League Cup when I was with Celtic.
I thought Thomas Tuchel made a big mistake swapping Mendy for Kepa.
Mendy is one of the best keepers in the world, he was full of confidence after making a brilliant double save to deny Mane and wasn’t long back from doing well in African Cup of Nations in penalty shoot-outs.
Trust me, he’ll have hated being taken off.
For Tuchel’s sake, hopefully it’s not something that comes back to haunt him down the line.
It might have already cost Chelsea a trophy, though.
Time will tell if Dundee’s draw against Hibs is a good or a not so good point.
They definitely needed something out of the game because Dens Park was turning toxic at the weekend when Livingston thrashed them.
A couple of weeks ago I thought there was a bit of hope that Dundee and St Johnstone might drag one or two other sides into the relegation battle but that’s not going to happen.
It’s one of our local teams going straight down to the Championship and the other into the play-offs.
Both managers will say that it’s what their own team does that matters but you can bet the first thing they’ll want to know when the full-time whistle blows is what the result of the other side is.
As long as football is played you’ll never stop the Old Firm fans’ tit for tats.
The friendly out in Australia in November is the latest one.
The clubs will both be making good money out of it, so I don’t have a problem.
And given they have global fanbases, this could be a once in a lifetime chance for supporters of the two clubs to see their teams play.
St Johnstone rising star Max Kucheriavyi shows his support for Ukraine during Saints v Rangers game
