Ewan Murray was at Hampden tonight, and his report has landed. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Steve Clarke’s turn. “It was always going to be difficult. Ireland had a free week and plenty of time to prepare, they were always going to be physically strong. You could see that in the first half when they pressed very well and stopped us getting into a rhythm. At the start of the second half we got a right grip on the game. I’m delighted for the players and really proud of them. The players are desperate to do well for their country and they showed that tonight. We go to Krakow to play a very good Ukraine team. But they have to win, and they have to approach the game in a very different manner. We’ll go away, rest, recover, count the bodies, then get on the plane to go to Poland.”
Some more good news for Scotland: Clarke also reports that both Kieran Tierney and Aaron Hickey are “OK” and were taken off as a precaution.
A downcast Stephen Kenny talks to Premier Sports. “We’re very disappointed. We played very well in the first half. Some really controlled performance. Terrific. Some really good play. Scotland have a lot of really good players, there’s no doubt. We’re disappointed to concede five minutes into the second half, because we’d started the half well and that gave Scotland momentum. The crowd were up. But having said that, we responded well to that, and should have taken the lead, we’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t. The hand ball for the penalty: it seems that Alan Browne was pushed himself by a Scottish player so that seems to me contentious. Overall I thought we were exceptional in the first half. In the second Scotland came stronger and we couldn’t get the control. But the players were brilliant overall, and it was a kick in the teeth to lose, but we have to accept it. We’ve only had three defeats in 16 games, we’ve brought a lot of players through and you’ve seen how they’re developing. It’s a good combination of youth and experience, and I feel we’re getting better.”
John Egan speaks to Premier Sports. “We’re very disappointed. I think we were brilliant in the first half, took the lead. We didn’t weather the storm early on, they get a goal in the second half, but we responded well. I haven’t seen the penalty back but it’s a tough one to take. We had our chances. We feel we could have won and it’s disappointing not to get anything for it. Our front two were causing carnage up front. We put ourselves in a good position, but we should have been able to start the second half well and not give a cheap goal away. We have some fantastic young players, a good mix of youth and experience, and when we play well, it’s there to see the exciting football we want to play.”
Ryan Christie talks to Premier Sports. “It’s a big win. We came into the game desperate to win for a number of reasons. We wanted to come away from this camp with three wins, and we started on Wednesday with one. The bigger factor was what happened in Dublin in the summer, and we wanted to put that right, because we felt we let ourselves and the fans down over there. Thankfully we put that right. It was a disappointing summer but that’s why we wanted to flip that on its head. We made a few tweaks at half time and showed a bit of character. Lots of confidence to take into Tuesday.”
A post-whistle booking for Hendry, who had gone nose to nose with Coleman. It all calms down quickly enough. Hampden celebrates wildly, Scotland having put in a much-improved performance in the second half to claim all three points. Promotion to tier A and a guaranteed spot in the Euro 2024 play-offs is now within their reach, though avoiding defeat in Ukraine is no mean task. The only downside to their evening: injuries to Tierney and Hickey, and a yellow card for McTominay that rules him out of the big game on Tuesday. Disappointment meanwhile for Ireland, who contributed plenty and could have won themselves on another night. It was an entertaining game, and both teams are heading in the right direction.
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FULL TIME: Scotland 2-1 Republic of Ireland
The end of an entertaining, hard-fought match that could have gone either way … but it’s Scotland who have come from behind for a fine win! They go back to the top of Group B1, and a draw against Ukraine in Poland on Tuesday will seal the deal.
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90 min +3: McGinn channels his inner Lioness by holding the ball up near the corner flag, under pressure from four orange shirts. Fine clock management.
90 min +2: Robinson crosses from the left. Knight heads harmlessly goalwards. Gordon claims, then launches a counter. Fraser skitters down the right and is cleaned out by Brady, who goes into the book.
90 min +1: Nothing much happens in the first one, but Hampden is on edge anyway.
90 min: There will be four added minutes.
89 min: Collins curls in from the right, forcing McKenna into conceding a corner. It’s no good, and Ogbene can’t recycle possession. Scotland break upfield through Fraser, who should set up McGregor for the clincher, but attempts a curler towards the bottom-right corner instead. Easy for Bazunu.
87 min: Hendry and Cullen are given the once-over by VAR for some afters in the wake of that brouhaha. Nothing serious has occurred, though. We play on.
86 min: McGinn clips Cullen, lighting the touchpaper. A rumble erupts. Then McTominay and Knight grapple. Both are booked. McTominay will now miss the Ukraine game. Sheer idiocy.
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85 min: A double change by Scotland. Christie and Dykes are replaced by McLean and Adams.
84 min: McTominay swings one in from the right. Dykes can’t quite get his head onto the ball. Any connection there, and Bazunu would have had some work to do.
83 min: Hampden is rocking now. Ireland respond by sending on Brady for McClean.
GOAL! Scotland 2-1 Republic of Ireland (Christie 82 pen)
Christie gives Bazunu the eyes. He waits for the keeper to dive to his right. Then he rolls calmly down the middle. Superb penalty kick!
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81 min: VAR double checks. Coleman is booked for protesting. The decision stands. Christie to take.
Penalty for Scotland!
80 min: McTominay goes up for a header on the penalty spot. Browne comes at him from behind with both arms extended forward. McTominay flicks a header onto his right arm, and the referee points to the spot!
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79 min: Ralston crosses from the right. Egan half clears. The ball drops to McGregor, who chests down on the edge of the D and fires towards the bottom right. The ball deflects out for a corner, from which …
77 min: McClean whips a dangerous cross in from the left. Christie, surrounded by orange shirts, does extremely well to head clear from the edge of his six-yard box. Such a fine ball by McClean.
76 min: Doherty’s race is run. He’s replaced by Coleman, while Parrott and Molumby make way for Robinson and Browne.
75 min: Collins launches long. Ogbene tears clear! But upon reaching the Scotland box, he floats a chip over the bar, and the flag goes up for offside anyway.
74 min: Fraser floats a poor free kick into the box, and it’s an easy catch for Bazunu.
73 min: A long pass down the left wing is flicked on by Dykes. Christie knocks it past Egan, who cynically blocks his man. The Ireland captain goes into the book.
72 min: Doherty goes down and requires a bit of treatment. He might just be trying to catch his breath, having played very little football this season. He’s back up again soon enough.
71 min: Doherty bundles Christie over on the left. Scotland load the box, only to start pushing and a-shoving. The whistle goes to release the pressure on Ireland.
69 min: McGregor launches an attack by striding down the middle. He passes right to McGinn, who shuttles the ball further to Fraser. He drops a shoulder and sends a curler towards the top left. Bazunu, at full stretch, tips around the post. The resulting corner is flicked on by McGinn, and McTominay prepares to head home at the far stick … only for Doherty to get in at the death with a clearing header! Great play all round.
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67 min: … so having said that, Fraser goes up the other end and floats one in from the right flank. McGinn goes up for a header, doesn’t make it, falls over, and claims a penalty. He’s not getting one. Just a corner, from which nothing comes. This match isn’t of the highest quality, but it’s great back-and-forth fun.
66 min: Knight has a dig from distance. It’s always flying wide right. Ireland look much the more likely right now.
65 min: Ogbene strides down the middle and slips wide left for McClean. His low cross tees up Molumby, who smashes a shot goalwards. It’s blocked, and Scotland clear their lines, but the hosts were all over the place there. They can’t handle the pace and positivity of Ogbene at all.
64 min: McKenna makes up for his mistake by heading Cullen’s free kick clear.
63 min: Ogbene’s pace is causing Scotland all sorts of trouble. He drops a shoulder to get past McKenna down the right. McKenna cynically brings him down and goes into the book. A free kick near the right-hand corner flag.
61 min: Scotland over-elaborate at the corner. A load of nonsense. Ireland go up the other end. Gordon looks to hack clear, but only manages to flipper the ball straight to the feet of Ogbene, who immediately fires back. It’s straight at Gordon. The keeper snaffles, and breathes a sigh of relief. Very nearly an old-school goalkeeping fiasco.
60 min: Obafemi is replaced by Ogbene. When play restarts, Christie makes good down the left and sends an outswinger towards the far post. Dykes prepares to head home, but McClean nips in to concede a corner instead.
58 min: Nothing comes of the Ireland corner. Hickey, however, has picked up an injury and is replaced by Ralston. Armstrong meanwhile makes way for Fraser.
56 min: … Ireland nearly score on the counter! McGregor’s loose pass is snaffled by Obafemi, and suddenly he’s tearing off towards the Scotland half. Christie tries to clean him out with a cynical foul but misses his man. Obafemi strides upfield, then rolls to the left for Parrott, who is one on one with Gordon! He’s got to score … but scuffs his shot straight at Gordon, who nevertheless parries magnificently. Corner.
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55 min: Scotland are first to everything now. McGregor finds Dykes on the penalty spot. Dykes swivels and shoots but O’Shea blocks. Scotland quickly come again, Dykes meeting a right-wing cross with a close-range header … only for Collins to knock out for a corner. From which …
53 min: McGinn finds himself in a pocket of space, 30 yards out from goal. He could take a couple of strides forward, but likes the look of things, and takes an instant shot. His daisycutter is always heading wide right. Full marks for backing yourself, if nothing else.
52 min: Ireland nearly hit back immediately, McGregor shipping possession in the middle of the park, Doherty striding into the box from the right. He drops a shoulder and lines up a curler towards the top left … but gets it all wrong. Goal kick.
51 min: That was a fine header by Hendry, who finished off the move he started himself. Hampden is bubbling now.
GOAL! Scotland 1-1 Republic of Ireland (Hendry 49)
Hendry strides down the middle of the park then slides a pass wide left for Taylor, who shuttles it on to Christie. Christie stands one up into the middle. Hendry rises highest and sends a slow-motion header across Bazunu, off the base of the right-hand post, and in. Hampden erupts!
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47 min: Taylor gives the ball away in midfield and is fortunate Doherty pushes Parrott too far out to the right with his pass. Ireland recycle possession, McClean firing in low from the other flank. McGregor intercepts and hoicks clear. A fast start to the half by Ireland.
Scotland get the second half underway. There have been no half-time changes.
Half-time entertainment. Something for fans of both Scotland and Ireland to enjoy.
HALF TIME: Scotland 0-1 Republic of Ireland
Ireland are halfway to doing a number on Scotland again.
45 min +1: Cullen very nearly picks up a second yellow in short order, sliding in late on an in-flight Hickey. The referee’s done him a favour there. The resulting free kick is sent into the mixer, and Dykes has his shot blocked by Egan.
45 min: Cullen is booked for reacting badly to Knight’s garden variety foul on McGinn. The referee not having any of his yap.
44 min: Doherty chases a ball down the right wing. Taylor shepherds it out of play. Doherty bundles into the back of him and accidentally studs him on the back of the leg. A sore one, but thankfully the newly arrived left-back is quickly up and about again.
43 min: McGinn’s corner is poor and flies straight down Bazunu’s throat.
42 min: Tierney disappears down the tunnel. He’s replaced by Greg Taylor. Meanwhile Dykes strides down the right and wins Scotland a corner.
40 min: Ireland deal with the second corner. Scotland are down to ten men for a minute as a final decision is made on Tierney.
39 min: Tierney is up and about, and says he’s fine, but I’m not sure the physio is going to allow him to continue. He walks off shaking his head in annoyance. Meanwhile VAR shows no interest in the tug by Parrott.
38 min: Before the second corner can be taken, the physio comes on to treat Tierney, who was having his arm tugged by Parrott and went down, before accidentally taking a kick on the head. VAR may take a look at that.
37 min: McTominay wins the ball off Molumby and sends Armstrong into space down the right. His cross is deflected out for a corner on the right, which leads to another on the left. Meanwhile here’s Colum Farrelly: “Scott McTominay will miss the Ukraine match if he gets booked, you tell us. But he is going to get booked, isn’t he? The only question is when. I’m going for 55 mins.”
35 min: McClean crosses long from the left. Parrott meets it at the far stick, forcing Gordon to claw away a header bound for the top left. But Parrott had only met the ball after shoving Tierney in the back, and he doesn’t get away with it.
33 min: Collins sashays in from the right wing and slips a pass towards the other flank for McClean, whose deflected cross leads to a brief game of head tennis and eventually a pressure-relieving foul on McTominay.
31 min: Armstrong bustles down the left and reaches the byline before looping into the box. Dykes opts to cushion a header down for McGinn instead of going for goal. McGinn drags another weak shot wide left.
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29 min: Scotland come again, Tierney slipping Christie into space on the left. The resulting low cross is blocked by Egan. The hosts have picked up the pace, and things are now beginning to happen for them. Bazunu has yet to be worked, though.
27 min: McGregor strides down the right and sends Armstrong away on the overlap. Armstrong swings in a low cross. McGinn arrives late to meet it, but his first-time shot dribbles harmlessly wide left.
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26 min: Christie takes up possession 40 yards out and drives towards the Irish box. He tries to find Armstrong with a forensic pass down the inside-right channel. It’s too hot for Armstrong to control and flies out for a goal kick. But that’s a little bit better from Scotland.
24 min: Hampden has fallen very quiet. The home fans with their hopes dashed. A long way to go yet, though Scotland need to put something together to get Hampden roaring again. They’ve produced nowt so far.
22 min: Scotland try to clear their heads by stringing together a few passes. McTominay, McGinn and Christie seeing plenty of the ball in the middle of the pitch. But they don’t really go anywhere. The Scotland of Wednesday night haven’t shown up yet.
20 min: Ireland caused Scotland all sorts of bother at set pieces in Dublin, and they’ve done it again. That’s dampened the atmosphere in Hampden, with the exception of the away section of course. They’re giving it plenty.
GOAL! Scotland 0-1 Republic of Ireland (Egan 18)
Scotland only half clear the corner, Dykes’ header dropping to Molumby on the edge of the box. Molumby heads down the inside-left channel. Collins takes a touch, the ball breaking to Egan, who sweeps a shot into the bottom left. Ireland lead!
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17 min: McTominay is stripped by Obafemi, and suddenly Ireland are three on two! Obafemi slips Parrott into the Scotland box on the right. Parrott releases a shot, but it’s blocked well by Hendry, who bravely spreads himself at the expense of a corner.
15 min: McGinn catches Knight late. It’s a mistimed leg stuck into a 50-50, nothing more, but it earns Scotland’s captain a talking-to from the referee. Then Doherty catches Tierney on the jaw with his shoulder. No malice there, either, but Tierney felt that nonetheless.
13 min: Scotland settle themselves with some sterile stuff in the middle of the park. A few Hampden hearts will have been in mouths for a second back there; you never know for sure until that flag pops up.
11 min: Parrott is released down the inside-left channel. He’s miles offside, but keeps going, enters the box, drops a shoulder to put Hendry on his backside, and lashes into the top right. That’s a fantastic finish, but the flag predictably, and quite correctly, goes up. Still, that’s got the away fans going.
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9 min: England are going down, trill the home fans to the tune of a popular Lightning Seeds hit of yesteryear.
8 min: Hickey rolls a cute ball down the right wing for McTominay, who one-twos crisply with Dykes and strides into the box. Not sure what he decided to do next. A shot? A low cross? Either way, it’s an easy dribbler for Bazunu. A lame end to a lovely sweeping move.
6 min: The first shot in anger is taken by Christie, who advances down the inside-left channel before bobbling a speculative – and frankly poor – effort harmlessly wide right. Bazunu watches it calmly.
5 min: This game is being played at 101 miles per hour. No real shape yet.
4 min: Hickey tries to release Armstrong down the right but overcooks his pass. Goal kick. A better ball may have opened up Ireland.
2 min: Ireland are seeing more of the ball during these very early exchanges. Scotland showing a willingness to press.
Ireland get the ball rolling. Obafemi and Parrott immediately turn on the jets, hoping to catch Scotland cold. McTominay intercepts and puts a stop to their caper. The visitors clearly up for this!
The teams are out! Scotland wear their dark blue, while Ireland change into orange. A fantastic atmosphere in Hampden. We’ll be off once the anthems are passionately sung, given the pantomime bird, etc.
Stephen Kenny’s turn. “The thing about international football is between our last window, when we finished strongly in Ukraine, it’s 96 days. That’s a considerable length of time. We’re excited about the game. We’re ready for it. We set a standard against Scotland and in Poland against Ukraine. We respect Scotland, who had a great win in midweek, but we want a similarly vibrant performance. Technically the players can all take the ball, I encourage that and want that. But the traditional Irish values are very important as well: passion, intensity and ability to work for each other and win the ball back.”
Steve Clarke speaks to Premier Sports. “We want to keep our momentum. We want to play well. We want to win the game. We want to go to Ukraine with the best possible chance to qualify, which means we have to put on a positive performance tonight. I’m only playing with one striker so now I’m in the fortunate position that I can rotate them a bit. I can use them for all the games depending on how I see the situation. We all know what happened in the summer and we want to play better and have a positive result.”
Scotland have four players who are one booking away from suspension. Scott McTominay, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Ché Adams will all miss the Ukraine game if they’re shown the yellow card this evening.
The Republic of Ireland also have four players teetering on the disciplinary tightrope. Josh Cullen, Callum Robinson, Jeff Hendrick and Alan Browne need to be on their best behaviour, else they’ll miss the visit of Armenia in Dublin next week.
Scotland make two changes to the starting XI named against Ukraine earlier this week. Lyndon Dykes replaces Ché Adams up front, while Aaron Hickey deputises for the injured Nathan Patterson.
The Republic of Ireland make four changes to the team that drew 1-1 with Ukraine back in June. Gavin Bazunu, John Egan, Matt Doherty and Michael Obafemi take the places of Caoimhin Kelleher, Darragh Lenihan, Alan Browne and Scott Hogan.
The teams
Scotland: Gordon, Hickey, Hendry, McKenna, Tierney, McTominay, McGregor, Armstrong, McGinn, Christie, Dykes.
Subs: Kelly, McCrorie, Gallagher, Taylor, Porteous, Adams, Gilmour, Ralston, Doig, Fraser, Jack, McLean.
Republic of Ireland: Bazunu, Doherty, Collins, Egan, Cullen, O’Shea, Knight, Molumby, McClean, Obafemi, Parrott.
Subs: Travers, O’Leary, Coleman, Duffy, Robinson, Hourihane, Hendrick, Browne, Hogan, Ogbene, Brady, O’Dowda.
Referee: Sandro Schärer (Switzerland).
Preamble
Last Wednesday, Scotland did this …
… and all of a sudden, winning Group B1 isn’t so much of a pipe dream. A draw tonight against the Republic of Ireland would pop them back on the top of the group – Ukraine won 5-0 in Armenia earlier this afternoon – and another point against the Ukrainians in neutral Poland on Tuesday would seal the deal. But the Republic have issues of their own, still not yet safe from relegation. A win at Hampden tonight would secure their status in the second tier, rendering the visit of Armenia on Tuesday academic. Given how well Scotland played during the week, and the 3-0 hiding Ireland gave them back in June, anything is possible tonight. Could be a cracker. Kick off is at 7.45pm BST. It’s on!
