Is it too early to book flights to Germany?
Okay so it's only two games in and there's a long way to go, but Scotland have entered the conversation for top spot in Group A after a stunning 2-0 win over Spain at Hampden. With Norway only managing a draw in Georgia (we've struggled their ourselves so let's not get carried away), but that's six points from six and the previously missing marquee result that would have made the difference in near qualifying misses over the years.
Despite Rodri's sulks claiming otherwise, Steve Clarke's side played with controlled aggression and had Spain rattled from the start. It wouldn't have happened during the tiki-taka era, but the visitors were reduced to swinging crosses into the box, which the back three in dark blue gobbled up all night.
Scott McTominay netted twice after coming off the bench against Cyprus, and he repeated the trick to take the roof off Hampden, which was bouncing with belief as soon as he fired i the opener after just seven minutes. The second made for a marginally more comfortable end to the game.
Record Sport takes a look at how the pundits felt about it.
Ally McCoist
The talkSPORT host and pundit of the year was up bright and breezy for his breakfast show slot and had words for hurting Manchester City man Rodri who described Scotland's tactics as "rubbish" in a scathing attack.
I thought we were just a wee bit too physical for Rodri! We were rubbish, is that the word he used? Bless his wee Spanish heart. He's a good player but he can cope with the physical side of the game no bother so the irony of him talking about the physicality of Scotland is not lost on me. Man alive, Hampden was jumping. That was nothing short of fantastic! It really was. And do you know something? I can say it now, I would've said it earlier, but we weren't really in any danger. They're putting crosses into the box and the lads were absolutely tremendous, whether it was Hanley, Porteous, Cooper. Kieran Tierney was superb, Aaron Hickey, McTominay with two goals. Have I named them all yet?!
Kenny Miller
I couldn’t have imagined it being as good a night. I believed the team was capable of a real good performance and potentially positive result but they surpassed my expectations - outstanding from first whistle to the last, to a man. Every single one of them who stepped out on that pitch, and even the guys who didn’t and cheered every challenge and celebrated the goals. They were suberb. They had to weather the storm which you knew was coming at times. They needed a bit of luck when the ball hit the crossbar but you need that to beat teams like this. We thoroughly deserved and it puts us in a wonderful position. I was hoping with two teams qualifying we wouldn’t have to go through the nerve-shredding play-off and this puts us in prime position to go and carry that out. The job is far from done but what a wonderful start.
Craig Levein
Spain helped us and taking Joselu off was a bad move. They were putting loads of crosses into the box in the first half but they rarely crossed the ball in the second half. They kind of played into our hands. They had us on the ropes for a 10-minute spell and they didn’t press it home in the second half. They resorted back to the short passes around the penalty box and only put two or three crosses in. We had all the players back in our half and killed the space around the 18-yard box. They were sloppy at times. Very rarely have I seen a Spanish team pass the ball out the park so many times under no pressure so many times in a game. But it was an absolutely brilliant performance, defensively first and foremost. The centre backs were brilliant and the wing backs. You need the solid foundation to be able to build and move forward. Every time you put a centre back in you say ‘he’s solid’. They are focused - Ryan Porteous would throw himself in front of a train for Scotland. And punters love to see that.
David Marshall
Historically, people still talk about the Kenny Dalglish winner against Spain in 1984 so they’ll still be talking about this in years to come. But the biggest thing for me is the position it puts us in in the group and the confidence the team will take from that. Everyone spoke about us being in competition with Norway and Georgia but this is a fantastic squad with real depth. It’s a brilliant, brilliant night for the fans and players and what a position it puts us in to qualify automatically for the Euros. We struggled initially under Steve Clarke but we had Belgium and Russia. He made a lot of changes to the squad. He knew exactly what he wanted and the type of character he wanted within the squad and it was a real close knit squad that got us to the Euros. Aaron Hickey has come in and he’s taken to international football so easily. He looks as if he’s been there for 50, 60 caps. The manager deserves enormous credit for what he’s done and it’s huge that he’s signed a new contract.
Willie Miller
It was a game where you accept you’re playing against a quality side and you have to be organised. It was a back five but an acceptable back five and when you’ve got possession that back five becomes a back three and you get the wing backs forward. And when you’ve got Scott McTominay finding the back of the net the way he has done recently that confidence just runs right through. It was a magnificent performance built on that defensive stability but with the quality of player out there in the dark blue jersey we all have to feel very privileged with with we’re watching.
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