Ewan Murray was at Hampden tonight. Here’s his verdict. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
The other game in Group A1 finished Portugal 5-1 Poland. All of which means the table looks like this with one game left to play.
Portugal P5 W4 D1 L0 F12 A4 Pts 13
Croatia P5 W2 D1 L2 F7 A7 Pts 7
Poland P5 W1 D1 L3 F8 A14 Pts 4
Scotland P5 W1 D1 L3 F5 A7 Pts 4
Portugal have won the group. They advance to the quarter-finals, along with Croatia, who are guaranteed second place on account of better head-to-head results against Poland and Scotland. As things stand, Poland will be in the League A versus League B play-offs, while Scotland will be relegated to League B, but they’ll switch positions should the Scots win in Warsaw on Monday night. A draw will be no use to Scotland, given Poland’s 3-2 win at Hampden back in September.
Has Freed From Desire, currently blazing from the Hampden speakers, ever sounded more apposite? Scotland’s all-time-worst run of ten competitive fixtures without a win has ended with a hard-fought but ultimately deserved victory over Croatia. Steve Clarke’s team were given the runaround for a good chunk of the first half, but dug in and, admittedly aided by the sending-off of Petar Sučić, dominated the second half. Scotland created chances. Scotland missed chances. But Ben Doak, who had Joško Gvardiol on toast, wasn’t to be denied, and set up John McGinn for the late winner. Scotland still need to win in Poland if they’re to avoid relegation back to League B, another huge ask, but that’s for another day. Hampden is in party mode now, and why not? The fans have had quite the wait to celebrate a meaningful win, after all.
FULL TIME: Scotland 1-0 Croatia
Scotland’s long winless run is over … and they stay alive in League A, for three more days at least!
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90 min +5: Another high ball into the Scotland box. Gordon can’t make his way through a crowded area to claim, but McKenna is on hand to head away from danger.
90 min +4: Modric crosses from the left. Robertson deals with it in a more conventional manner this time, heading clear.
90 min +3: Pjaca crosses from the left. The ball hits Robertson on the bahookie. Somehow it gets cushioned into the arms of Gordon.
90 min +2: Ben Doak makes way for Stuart Armstrong. As he leaves, he’s named player of the match by Michael Stewart on BBC Scotland STV Grampian the Viaplay YouTube channel. That it’s come to this.
90 min +1: It’s now 5-1 to Portugal against Poland, Cristiano Ronaldo and Dominik Marczuk trading late goals. But never mind that.
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90 min: There will be five additional minutes. Given the way this Nations League has gone for Scotland, they will feel like 55.
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89 min: McTominay and Kovačić battle for a long ball down the middle. Kovačić wins the duel. Just. Scotland don’t look like sitting back, wisely deciding that attack is their best mode of defence.
88 min: That’s McGinn’s 19th goal for Scotland. He’s now level in the goalscoring charts with Ally McCoist. That’s not bad company to be keeping.
87 min: Doak has been magnificent tonight. He’s made Gvardiol’s life a misery.
GOAL! Scotland 1-0 Croatia (McGinn 86)
It’s Doak versus Gvardiol down the right again. He burns past his man again. He shoots again! Kotarski parries once more, but the rebound falls to McGinn, who powers a shot towards the bottom right. It heads in, taking a small upward deflection off Ćaleta-Car that took the keeper out of the game. Hampden roars!
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85 min: Doak burns past Gvardiol on the right. He batters a shot from a tight angle. Kotarski parries and his defenders hack clear.
84 min: Ralston plays a simple pass ten yards behind Doak. Not the time for it. Hampden collectively irritated.
83 min: Make that 4-0 to Portugal. Pedro Neto with the latest. Meanwhile the game restarts at Hampden.
82 min: On comes the stretcher. Jakić is bundled onto it. Marko Pjaca comes on in his stead. Meanwhile it’s now 3-0 to Portugal against Poland, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes settling that one with a quick one-two. Portugal are about to win this group, unless Croatia can come up with a late sickener for Scotland.
80 min: Jakić goes down holding his left knee. Doesn’t look as though he’s going to be able to continue. Modrić turns to the bench and performs the internationally recognised hand-jive for substitute.
79 min: Oh man. Gilmour pings a long pass down the left for Gauld, who nutmegs Modric (!) before teeing up McTominay on the edge of the D. McTominay can’t decide whether or not to shoot, and opts instead of passing left to Robertson, who shanks something that’s neither cross nor shot over the bar. Scotland had to work Kotarski at the very least there. They had to. But they didn’t.
77 min: Gauld cuts in from the wing and sends a clever flick down the inside-left channel and into the box, but Dykes doesn’t read the intent. Kotarski comes out to smother.
75 min: Nikola Vlašić comes on for Martin Baturina.
74 min: Modric dances down the inside-right channel before gently wedging down the inside-left for Pašalić. Pašalić draws Gordon and wafts a shot across the keeper and wide right. Huge chance. Hampden was waiting for the net to ripple.
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73 min: Gilmour plays it short, and suddenly Croatia stream forward on a counter. Scotland are very fortunate that Pašalić’s pass wide right to Perišić turns out to be hopeless, and easily intercepted. A fair chance John McGinn suffered an unwelcome flashback from Liverpool-Villa last weekend.
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72 min: Scotland pass and probe. Robertson rolls one down the left. McGinn wins a corner. Gilmour to take.
70 min: Doak embarks on an electric dribble down the right. He reaches the byline and hooks back for Gilmour, who leans back and fires over the bar from the edge of the box. He had more time than he thought. Another big chance goes begging.
69 min: Baturina as ballerina in the middle of the park. An elegant spin that makes space to start an attack. The ball’s crossed from the left. Perišić snatches at it, and sends a shot wide right. A reminder that the ten men still carry quite the threat.
68 min: Gauld is immediately in the thick of the action, McGinn and Robertson combining to release him down the left. Gauld loops to the far post, where Doak volleys high and wide. That’s another fine chance.
67 min: Scotland make a triple change. Tommy Conway, Kenny McLean and Ryan Christie are replaced by Ryan Gauld, John McGinn and Lyndon Dykes.
66 min: Nothing comes of the corner.
65 min: … and suddenly Modric rolls a pass down the left for Kramarić, who feeds Gvardiol. A shot from a tight angle is deflected out for a corner on the left. Before it can be taken, Ivan Perišić and Mario Pašalić come on for Andrej Kramarić and Luka Sučić.
64 min: Croatia play some keepball. The ten men still with plenty of class to ooze.
62 min: Baturina drops a shoulder to edge in from the left and shoots. His effort is deflected off Ralston and threatens to loop over Gordon and into the top right. But thankfully for Scotland, the ball sails over the bar, and nothing comes from the resulting corner.
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60 min: Rafael Leão has given Portugal the lead over Poland in the other match. Good news for Scotland, not so much for Croatia.
58 min: Šutalo’s panicked ball out from the left-back position is intercepted by Gilmour, who has the opportunity to slip a pass towards Doak on the right. Doak is free in the box, but Gilmour goes for the spectacular curler instead. Nope. Hampden groans. A more confident team would surely have taken one or two of these chances.
57 min: Gilmour crosses deep from the left. Doak hooks it back from the right-hand edge of the six-yard box. McLean pokes the loose ball in the direction of Ralston, who smacks goalwards low and hard. Blocked. Scotland making half-chances here.
56 min: Kramarić works his way down the left and wins a corner for the visitors. Luka Sučić ambles over to take it … then slaps it straight into Robertson! Scotland suddenly have a gratis counter on, but a ball upfield intended for Doak sails out of play.
54 min: Gilmour snaffles possession and sends Doak tearing into space down the right. Doak enters the box and is within his right to shoot, but looks for Conway in the middle instead. Ćaleta-Car diverts the low cross out for a corner, from which nothing comes. A huge chance spurned.
52 min: Croatia slow things down a bit, professionally drawing some of Scotland’s early second-half sting.
50 min: Robertson’s cross back there was hooked clear brilliantly by Šutalo. Croatia then counter, Modrić shooting harmlessly wide left from distance, the flag then going up for an offside earlier in the move.
49 min: Gilmour does much better here, rolling a pass down the left for Robertson, who can’t quite find Conway in the middle with his low cross. Scotland have started this second half well against the ten men.
48 min: Ralston rakes a pass down the right for Doak, who looks Scotland’s best bet. Doak rolls infield for Gilmour, who attempts a cute McTominayesque flick but gets it all wrong.
47 min: McTominay’s cute flick down the right sends Doak off on the burst. Doak crosses, forcing Ćaleta-Car to concede a corner. Christie takes, McTominay heads harmlessly over. That’s better from Scotland, though, the early evidence suggesting Steve Clarke has told his team to up the tempo.
Scotland get the second half started. Scott McKenna has replaced Grant Hanley. John McGinn was warming up a lot during the break, incidentally.
Half-time reading. More hot Ben Doak action coming right at you.
In the other Group A1 match, it’s Portugal 0-0 Poland at the break. So it’s as you were. “See, it should help,” begins Scott Blair, “but I’m not sure if winding up Luka Modric to apparent near breaking point is going to end well for us.”
HALF TIME: Scotland 0-0 Croatia
For a nanosecond, it looks as though Christie and Modrić are about to start a rumble, but the whistle goes and the pair embrace with a smile. Very much not smiling: Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić, who makes a beeline for the referee to offer him a different perspective on his decision to send off Petar Sučić. Dalić withdraws from the discussion just in time, though one of his backroom team keeps it going, and is yellow carded for his trouble. This is on. Second half should be fun.
45 min +2: Hanley knees the ball behind for a corner. A goal kick is awarded. Fair to say Croatia are on a rolling boil now.
45 min: Just before the red-card incident, Conway had spun Ćaleta-Car down the left before entering the box and falling over when challenged again by the defender. He wanted a penalty, but was flagged offside. Replays show Conway was probably on … but there was nothing in the penalty claim either. So that happened.
44 min: That was a poor challenge. You could make a case for a straight red, though yellow seems fairer. Mind you, Sučić was booked for not very much earlier on, so you can perhaps see why Modrić is fuming. You could also argue that Sučić earned himself half a yellow, followed by a yellow-and-a-half, and yes I realise that sounds preposterous, but you get the gist. Anyway, Modrić is booked for telling it as he sees it, and he’ll miss the next match against Portugal too.
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RED CARD: Petar Sučić (Croatia)
43 min: Croatia are irritated now! Petar Sučić’s studs catch Souttar on the knee as the pair contest a 50-50. A second yellow and he’s off!
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42 min: If nothing else, that little incident has betrayed some Croatian irritation. They must wonder how they’re not leading this game, to be fair.
40 min: Ćaleta-Car is booked for climbing all over the back of Christie. Forearm on noggin too. That’s probably not enough for a red, but it’s taking a risk all right. Modrić has the chutzpah to complain to the referee about the yellow, which is captain’s prerogative I guess.
39 min: Hampden isn’t so much roaring now as gently humming. The Hampden Hum not quite so catchy, despite the alliteration.
37 min: All a bit scrappy now. Scotland will probably take this state of affairs, with Croatia having taken it down a notch and half-time getting ever-closer.
35 min: Robertson heads the corner clear. Luka Sučić returns the ball with an absolute pelt. Gordon punches clear, then again, then claims Ćaleta-Car’s weak effort. Slightly unconventional keeping. Not flash, but flash-adjacent.
34 min: Hanley’s misplaced pass upfield gifts Croatia yet another freebie attack. Modric probes. He can’t find the final pass, but does enough to earn a corner down the right and he’ll take it himself.
32 min: Doak causes more bother down the right. The play’s switched to McTominay, who cushions down for McLean. A shot flies away harmlessly into the Glasgow night.
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30 min: Petar Sučić is booked for a clip on the back of Gilmour’s leg. There wasn’t much in that, and the Croatian looks dumbfounded. He’ll now miss Croatia’s final match against Portugal.
28 min: McLean and Doak combine at speed down the right before laying off to Conway, who doubles back and all the momentum is gone. The excitement whenever Doak gets on the ball is palpable.
26 min: Luka Sučić, at the right-hand corner of the Scotland box, hits a dangerous diagonal cross-cum-shot that evades Kramarić and flies inches wide of the bottom-left corner. Croatia want a corner, and they deserve one, the ball having taken a nick off Christie, but they’re not getting it.
24 min: Baturina meets a right-wing cross and pokes it straight at Gordon. The keeper, well positioned, claims confidently. Baturina looked offside, though; any goal surely wouldn’t have counted.
23 min: Gvardiol pays Doak back by nutmegging him. This sideshow is worth the price of admission alone.
21 min: Football is a very strange game. What a turn by Doak, though. Gvardiol left in his dust. One simple movement that’s suddenly changed the mood in Hampden.
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19 min: One corner leads to another, which leads to another. All of a sudden, Scotland have the wind behind, and Croatia are reeling themselves. The third corner is hit long from the right, but Christie can’t meet it at the far stick. Goal kick.
18 min: … so having said that, Doak spins Gvardiol with absurd ease down the right touchline. That’s sensational! He rips along the flank, glides infield, and rolls across the face of the Croatian box for McTominay, who fires low and hard towards the bottom right. Kotarski, making his competitive debut in the Croatian goal, turns out for a corner.
16 min: Gvardiol juggles his way past Doak down the left to win yet another corner. Scotland were hoping the Gvardiol-Doak dynamic would play out the other way around. But here we are. The corner leads to Baturina dancing down the left, only to run the ball out for a goal kick with team-mates waiting in the middle. Scotland are being run ragged here.
14 min: Some pinball in the Scotland box. Gvardiol, who has been finding the net regularly for Manchester City, lurks, forcing Souttar to poke out for a corner. Scotland deal with the set piece, but they’re not dealing with very much else. A Croatia goal feels no more than a matter of time. Minutes, and not many of them either.
13 min: Petar Sučić is clattered from behind by Hanley. Free kick out on the right. Hanley fortunate not to go into the book. Before the free kick can be taken, Jakić goes over holding his right knee. He gets back up eventually, but still looks in real pain. Not sure what happened there.
11 min: That was some save by Gordon, by the way. Not so flash, in fact it looked quite scruffy, but he did so well to adjust and react to get anything on Kramarić’s shot. It was heading in otherwise. “In my town, there used to be a strip joint named Flesh Gordon,” writes Mike MacKenzie, before adding for legal purposes: “I only know this from having driven by it.”
9 min: Croatia slice through the Scotland midfield again. Kramarić dribbles into the box from the left and gives Gordon the eyes. He rolls towards the bottom-left corner, the keeper having been initially sent the wrong way. But Gordon adjusts and sticks out a long leg to stud the ball around the post. Nothing comes of the resulting corner, but Scotland can’t keep on like this.
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7 min: Somewhere in the multiverse, Croatia are already 2-0 up thanks to a couple of dozy midfield errors. The hosts need to wake up quicksmart.
5 min: A lethargic Gilmour is skittled off the ball by Kovačić. Hard but fair. The perfectly timed lunge sends Croatia on another bonus attack. Kramarić can’t make space to shoot from a position on the left. The ball’s shuttled right to Luka Sučić, who leans back and hoicks over. Scotland get away with another big mistake.
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4 min: No idea what McLean was trying to achieve there. He was under no pressure whatsoever.
3 min: McLean plays a comically awful backpass straight to Kramarić, who spares the Scotland midfielder’s blushes by dragging a weak shot wide right.
2 min: A slow start to the game. The YouTube coverage – disgracefully, this isn’t on UK television – is a bit jittery. Unless I’ve had too much coffee. “I seem to recall Flash Gordon proclaiming ‘The game’s lost! Stop your attack on Earth and I’ll spare your life!’,” reminisces Justin Kavanagh. “I’m not sure Luka Modric is going to buy that argument in his chequerboard spacesuit.”
Croatia get the ball rolling. “I’ll stay tuned to find out how Flash Gordon fares against Modric the Merciless,” promises comic-book guy Peter Oh.
The teams are out! Scotland in windswept and interesting dark blue, Croatia in that iconic red-and-white checkerboard. Everyone looking damn fine. Hampden is wet, but Hampden is happening. Roar! We’ll be off in a couple of minutes. “The Flash Gordon theme is indeed excellent,” agrees Scott Blair. “Far be it from me to suggest that there must have been a recent complete overhaul of the SFA ‘sense of humour’ committee. Mind you, from what I recall of watching the exploits of the original Flash at the, ahem, cinema in the early 70s ... he always left you in impossible jeopardy when the episode finished. So that’s all good.”
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A reminder of how Group A1 looks going into its final double-header. Nothing’s decided yet, other than Portugal and Croatia being safe from automatic relegation. What we do know is that should Poland’s result in Portugal tonight better Scotland’s against Croatia, the Scots will be relegated to League B. Scotland can in theory still finish in second spot, but for that to happen, they’d need to at least match Croatia’s earlier 2-1 win over them, then hope all the pieces land jam side up on Monday evening as well. Probably best not to get too far ahead of ourselves by wrestling with that set of probabilities just yet.
Portugal P4 W3 D1 L0 F7 A3 Pts 10
Croatia P4 W2 D1 L1 F7 A6 Pts 7
Poland P4 W1 D1 L2 F7 A9 Pts 4
Scotland P4 W0 D1 L3 F4 A7 Pts 1
The cover of tonight’s programme features Craig Gordon rendered in the style of an old-school comic-book hero. It looks good, it’s a witty conceit, and Gordon, still going at 41 after serving Scotland well in 77 previous appearances, is most certainly deserving of the honour and attention. But you do have to wonder whether the programme editor is playing fast and loose with the Football Gods, given that should anything happen to Gordon this evening, Steve Clarke will be forced to send on a debutant in either Robby McCrorie or Cieran Slicker. McCrorie, 26, has 12 appearances for Kilmarnock this season to his name, having just ended a frustrating spell at Rangers; Slicker, 22, has two League Cup appearances for his current club Ipswich on his CV, plus five EFL Trophy outings for Manchester City U21s and another for Rochdale. Should either be called upon tonight, we could have the most heartwarming rags-to-riches substitute-goalie story since Nigel Spink in the 1982 European Cup final on our hands. God speed, one and all.
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Tonight’s Scotland XI is infused with a tincture o’Tees: Middlesbrough striker Tommy Conway, with five Championship goals to his name this season already, makes his first start for his country, while in-form club-mate Ben Doak is there from the off for a third game in a row. Conway is the only change from the team that started the goalless draw with Portugal last month, taking the place of the absent Torino striker Ché Adams. John McGinn, who has been in and out of the Aston Villa side recently, is perhaps surprisingly only on the bench.
The teams
Scotland: Gordon, Ralston, Souttar, Hanley, Robertson, Gilmour, McLean, Doak, McTominay, Christie, Conway.
Subs: Slicker, McCrorie, McGinn, Dykes, Shankland, Taylor, Barron, Porteous, McKenna, Armstrong, Gauld, Devlin.
Croatia: Kotarski, Jakić, Šutalo, Ćaleta-Car, Gvardiol, Modrić, Kovačić, Baturina, Petar Sučić, Luka Sučić, Kramarić.
Subs: Labrović, Ivušić, Pongračić, Moro, Pašalić, Vlašić, Perišić, Pašalić, Oršić, Sosa, Pjaca, Matanović.
Referee: Orel Tsvika Grinfeeld (Israel)
VAR: Ziv Adler (Israel)
🔢 Team news 🏴#SCOCRO pic.twitter.com/5MK3yT24Ue
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 15, 2024
🥁 Here's #Croatia starting lineup for the #NationsLeague encounter with @ScotlandNT in Glasgow! 🏴🇭🇷 #SCOCRO #Family | #PokažiSrce | #Vatreni❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/6jHEvW1glf
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) November 15, 2024
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Preamble
Four matches in Group A1 have led to three defeats and one draw, but Scotland aren’t done just yet. They may be on an all-time-worst run of ten competitive fixtures without a win, six of those games lost, but they haven’t been that bad in this Nations League campaign. They’ve performed well in patches against three teams of a much higher rank; they’ve suffered more last-gasp heartache than seems strictly fair; and they’ve had absolutely no luck, a commodity even the best teams need to rely on every now and then. A positive result tonight, one that at least matches Poland’s effort in Portugal, will maintain Scotland’s faint hopes of avoiding relegation back to League B. Can they get one against the runners-up in this competition last year? It’s a big ask, but Scotland have pulled off dafter heists in the past. They’ve also gone out of many a competition with barely a whimper, but let’s focus on the positives for now. Kick-off is at 7.45pm GMT. It’s on!
