Emotional Souness tells Fifa to create extra World Cup spot for Ukraine regardless of the play-offs

GRAEME SOUNESS has urged Fifa to create an extra spot for war-torn Ukraine at the World Cup.

The Scot emotionally revealed he was willing them to BEAT his own country in Wednesday's semi-final qualifier.

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And that proved to be the case as Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk netted at Hampden to earn a showdown with Wales.

It was Ukraine's first competitive game since the country was invaded by Russia earlier this year.

And Souness believes Ukraine needs to be at the World Cup later this year, regardless of the result in Cardiff on Sunday.

He said before kick-off: "In Ukraine right now it transcends football, this is life and death.

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"We have to stand up and support Ukraine

"Fifa should say, this team should be going to the World Cup, make a group of five somewhere.

“Ukraine should be going to the World Cup. They need to keep the name of Ukraine at the forefront of everyone’s mind.”

Earlier this week, Souness declared he wants Ukraine to beat Scotland - despite being born and bred there himself.

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Souness told the Times: “I’m going to find myself in a really difficult situation. I’ll be emotional. I don’t just want Ukraine to qualify, I want them to go there (Qatar) and win it.

"How far do you have to bury your head in the sand not to realise the situation the world’s in right now? Will it be when someone presses the button on a nuclear weapon?

“I’d not want to be one of the Scottish players playing that night. I don’t know where my emotions would be.

"My emotions when I think about it deeply are that it’s more important than football to send a message that Russia’s behaviour is unacceptable.

"The world has to unite and tell them that — you can hear the emotion in my voice. That’s my over-riding feeling on the situation.

"I’m doing it for television and I’m not sure how I’ll cope with that. I know the majority of our supporters who go there will feel the same — there you are. It’s going to be a really strange night.”