After losing 1-0 to Wales on Sunday, Ukraine's soccer team wept in the rain as they applauded their disappointed supporters.
In the 34th minute, Andriy Yarmolenko accidentally headed the ball into his own net as he tried to clear Wales captain Gareth Bale’s free kick.
Wales will host the 64th World Cup, opening against the United States in November. This was too far for Ukraine, which had to fulfill an emotionally charged mission to qualify to play in Qatar.
"We did everything we could," coach Oleksandr Ptrakov stated through a translator. But I want the people of Ukraine not to forget our team's efforts.
Petrakov made it his priority to ensure that the suffering at home was not forgotten by the rest of the world, after the World Cup dream was over.
Petrakov stated that "we have war raging across the country." Petrakov said that children and women are dying every day. Russian barbarians are destroying our infrastructure. Russian barbarians want to harm us, but the Ukrainians resist and defend their land. We are asking for your support. We want you to be able to see what's happening back home.
Ukrainians returned home on the 102nd Day of War. They sought relief from their suffering by going to bars in Cardiff, Kyiv, and watching the game.
Any party's mood was affected by the missile and war strikes in Ukraine's capital on Sunday, which put an obvious damper on the match.
Dmytro leshehenko, an architect, pulled out his bright yellow jersey from the national team -- purchased in happier times when Ukraine hosted the 2012 European Championships. He and his brother walked past two gold-domed cathedrals in Kyiv to a bar, where they watched the match together. They were accompanied by two large 3-liter jugs filled with beer, fried bread and other snacks.
"People on the battlefields saw this on their phones," Leshehenko stated, recalling conversations with friends who served in the armed forces.
Patrons clustered around their mobile phones to keep up with the action after the big screens at the bar lost their signal during the second half. Some suggested that Russian hackers might have cut the transmission.
The loss was not a crushing defeat. It was an acknowledgment that the war is more important than the loss. The match was a brief moment of relief.
Leshehenko stated that "we have more problems than these." "This day is one where we can feel that there's no war. It's a holiday.
There was also an impression that the playoff was the less difficult of all the problems facing Ukraine in Cardiff
Anna Stepanova, a Ukrainian fan who traveled to Mykolaiv to see the team where her house was damaged, said that "our main fight is our warfare." "Everyday we hear bombs and artillery. It is a difficult life. We came here, and now we feel like we are in another world."
The war specter was visible in Cardiff, with a message in English and Ukrainian informing the crowd.
100 tickets were free for refugees fleeing Ukraine from February's invasion. This resulted in Russia being disqualified as a candidate for the World Cup.
Rivalries were forgotten when the Ukrainian national song was played. The home crowd applauded the performance and then clapped for the downbeat opposition.
Wayne Hennessey, Wales' goalkeeper, proved to be an impassable wall. In European qualifying, no other team had more than Ukraine's nine shots on goal without scoring.
Hennessey kept Viktor Tsyhankovs poked shot out of play 10 minutes into the second period, as Ukraine tried unsuccessfully to find an equalizer. Artem Dovbyk's header at the 84th minute seemed destined for the corner, but it was stopped by Hennessey with his left hand.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ukraine's midfielder, said that "he made some incredible saves." We didn't deserve today's loss, it was so close. We must continue to work hard and keep going.
