MARK Hughes will be reminded about his biggest footballing regret as Wales target World Cup glory this afternoon.

The Welsh face Scotland’s conquerors Ukraine in Cardiff aiming to finally end a 64-year wait to reach the finals.

Hughes won 72 caps for his country and managed them for five years – but was unable to emulate the achievement of 1958.

The City boss admitted: “I got close a couple of times but was never able to play in a World Cup finals.

“That’s probably the one glaring omission from my CV that I never played in a major championship for my country. That was a big regret in my career.

“But some of these guys have already done that in the Euros.

“It would be great if we finally get there, we’ve got close too many times in the past and been upset at the final hurdle. It’s a huge opportunity for Wales.”

The winner will be in the same group as England as well as Iran and USA when the tournament kicks off in Qatar in November.

Wales reached the World Cup finals in Sweden in 1958 before being knocked out by eventual winners Brazil. It remains their only appearance in the finals.

They did qualify for the European Championships in 2016 and 2020 – making it to the semi-finals six years ago in France where they were again eliminated by the competition winners Portugal.

They were beaten 4-0 by Denmark in the round of 16 last year.

Hughes scored within 17 minutes of making his international debut, netting the winner against England in 1984. It was the first of 16 goals for Wales but he never got beyond the group stages.