Slovenia’s meeting with Finland in the bronze medal match of the Men’s European Volleyball Championship in Italy yesterday had a detrimental impact on the attendance in the Stozice Stadium in Ljubljana.
The central European country have one of the best volleyball sides on the planet and many of the locals were clearly more interested in seeing how they fared in the Unipol Forum in Milan than cheering on their leading footballers in their Nations League opener against Scotland.
There were thousands of empty seats in the 16,000 capacity stadium as the two teams took to the field in the September sunshine ahead of the Group B1 encounter.
Yet, Jan Oblak and his team mates, who reached the last 16 at Euro 2024 and were undefeated in regulation time in those finals in Germany, showed they are, while by no means world beaters, difficult opponents.
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The redoubtable hosts made Sebastien Pocognoli’s debut a challenging one and denied them both the goal and the win which their second half showing maybe merited.
The Belgian, who succeeded Steve Clarke as Scotland manager last month, wasted no time implementing sweeping changes. There was, as had been widely anticipated, a bold new 3-4-1-2 formation. There were debuts for Steven Welsh and Robbie Ure and a return to the international stage for Oliver McBurnie after a six-and-a-half year absence.
It is, though, clearly going to take a little time for Andy Robertson and his compatriots to adapt to the new system and meet the fresh demands on them.
The visitors were, despite deploying a La Liga player and a Premier League man in a twin strike force, toothless in attack and, despite having three centre-backs on the pitch, split open much too easily and far too often in defence.
Scotland were highly fortunate to be level when they returned to their dressing room at half-time. Andraz Sporar had a goal ruled offside and fired just wide, Aljosa Matko struck the side netting and Vanja Drkusic headed onto the post at a corner.
Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna and Welsh all needed to make important interventions to prevent their team falling behind. It made for pretty grim viewing for the 800 or so salmon pink strip-wearing members of the Tartan Army who were inside the ground.
Supporters had hoped to see their heroes play with a far higher line than they had under Clarke and that was certainly the case. But their failure to apply pressure when their rivals had the ball was costly and frequently left them exposed defensively.
Scotland finished the first-half far better thanks to that old war horse John McGinn. Playing centrally just off McBurnie and Ure, he used his physicality to win the ball in the Slovenia half and initiated an attack which visibly lifted his side. The move ended with Aaron Hickey having a goal-bound attempt blocked.
Ure was then unlucky not to break the deadlock after cutting in from the left flank and unleashing a powerful left-footed shot from the edge of the area. His fine effort beat Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Oblak but struck the outside of the post.
Still, the statistics at half-time told a damning story. The national team had an xG of just 0.23. It had been 1.14 when they were thrashed 3-0 by Brazil in Miami in their previous outing in June.
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There were few positives for Pocognoli. It was heartening to see Billy Gilmour, who was cruelly ruled out of the World Cup by the knee injury he suffered in the warm-up match against Curacao at Hampden at the end of May, back involved alongside Lewis Ferguson. But even the Napoli midfielder’s passing left much to be desired.
The former Royal Union Saint-Gilloise and Monaco manager urged his charges to be sharper on the counter-press in the dressing room and his words had the desired impact. They posed a much greater threat in the second half than they had in the first.
McBurnie, who was industrious from kick-off until the final whistle, dropped deep to link play constantly and more than justified his selection up front despite once again failing to open his account for his adopted homeland, got through on Oblak shortly after the restart only for the Slovenia skipper to pluck the ball out from under his feet.
Gilmour, too, came in to proceedings more. He tested Oblak with a terrific effort and created two opportunities for Ure ahead of him. The former Rangers kid, who moved to Sevilla in a €9m transfer this summer, was offside on the first occasion and denied on the second.
The rousing Scotland resurgence increased the decibel levels inside the arena noticeably. The Slovenia fans in the 12,000-strong crowd must have wished they had stayed at home to watch the volleyball.
Kieron Bowie took over from Ure with around 20 minutes remaining and quickly made his presence felt. He tested Oblak when he was supplied by Welsh and then fired past the right upright after linking with Gilmour.
It was one way traffic, but nobody could find the target. McBurnie and Hickey both got away decent headers. The Slovenia goalie showed why he is a former Primeira Liga, La Liga and Europa League winner.
Ben Gannon-Doak replaced Hickey in the closing stages. Could the Bournemouth winger use his pace and trickery to engineer an opening which somebody could capitalise on? The former Celtic and Liverpool wide boy was unable to make a difference. He still needs to work on his crossing.
Scoring goals has so often been a problem for Scotland in the past. They found the net just once at the World Cup, the deflected McGinn strike in the win over Haiti, and failed to make the knockout rounds as a consequence.
Pocognoli - who named four strikers, Bowie, McBurnie, Ure and James Wilson, in his 27 man squad for this Nations League quadruple header in the absence of injured duo Che Adams and Lawrence Shankland – will need to find far more of a cutting edge in the final third. Starting against Switzerland at Hampden on Tuesday night. He has the players he needs at his disposal.
Drawing with Slovenia away is disappointing but by no means a disaster in the circumstances. The dominant second half display was, despite the final outcome, encouraging for the new manager. Still, improvements will need, not least in attack, to be made going forward.
