When Sweden and Ukraine meet in Scotland on Tuesday at the European Championship, Mikael Lustig will feel right at home. The Sweden defender was a frequent visitor and winner at Hampden Park in a successful eight seasons at Celtic until leaving in 2019
“It’s amazing. I haven’t been back since I left,” Lustig said ahead of returning to the city and a stadium where he won four Scottish Cup finals. “All my friends in Glasgow, be there!”
Lustig is in rare company for the last scheduled game in the round of 16 at Euro 2020. Sweden last played at Hampden Park 40 years ago, one month before Zlatan Ibrahimovic was born, in a World Cup qualifying match. Ukraine have made only one trip, 14 years ago for a Euro 2008 qualifier.
Both teams lost those games against Scotland but one will leave Glasgow with their nation’s first win in the knockout round of a European Championship and set up a match against either England or Germany in the quarter-finals on Saturday in Rome.
About 10,000 fans are expected at the 52,000-capacity stadium in Glasgow but few will be able to travel from the two nations because of quarantine rules required by Scottish authorities.
“My view is that it’s a wrong decision,” Sweden coach Janne Andersson said through a translator on Monday. “I think it’s really weird that they decided to host the game where our supporters are not allowed to join and watch the game.” Lustig was more optimistic, saying “there are many Swedes in the U.K. I hope they get there.”
“I have many friends in Glasgow who can solve it,” said the 34-year-old defender, who won eight straight league titles with Celtic and now plays for AIK Stockholm.
Ukraine coach Andriy Shevchenko looked toward “a very big Ukrainian diaspora in the UK and we hope that they will come to support us.”
Lustig shares a little history with Shevchenko, the greatest player of his nation’s modern football history.
Shevchenko scored in that 3-1 loss to Scotland in 2007, and also got both goals in the only previous competitive game between Ukraine and Sweden a 2-1 win for co-hosts Ukraine at Euro 2012.
Lustig and current Sweden captain Sebastian Larsson both started that game, as did Andriy Yarmolenko, who is now the captain of Ukraine. Since then, Yarmolenko has played in all of Ukraine’s eight games at European Championships. The only victory was beating North Macedonia 2-1 on June 17, a result which put Ukraine into the round of 16 with the worst record of the advancing teams three points and a negative goal difference.
“In the end, fate gave us a second chance,” Ukraine midfielder Oleksandr Zubkov said, “and it is a sin not to use them.”