Horrible & wonderful
But world-class ending seals our spot in the final
THE dress rehearsal was rubbish, let’s face it.
The real thing was worse. Much worse – until the penalty shootout, when Scotland were world class.
Five out of five were tucked away under the fiercest of pressure and all it took was one save from David Marshall – the first one – and that was enough to get Steve Clarke’s men on the plane to Serbia next month.
But this was a horrible night with a wonderful ending.
Make no mistake, it was a war of attrition from the first minute to the 120th and we could have paid the price for treating Israel – 93rd in the world and with only one win in their last nine internationals – with far too much respect.
Clarke’s men fluffed their lines and stumbled all across the international stage when Israel last visited Hampden 35 days ago.
If truth be told, they were lucky to get a Nation’s League point out of it. Had they left with all the spoils there could have been few complaints, even if there were plenty about the level of the Scots’ performance.
But important as that match was, it was a kickabout in the park compared to the significance of last night. This time if Clarke’s men got it wrong they were heading for an exit stage right.
Another summer of watching a football festival without being involved – and some of it right on our own doorstep with four Euro 2021 games set for Mount Florida – would be the punishment for failure.
Nothing could be won last night but everything could have been lost.
That’s pressure and Clarke put out a team that should have been used to that. Five English Premier League players – Scott McTominay, Liam Cooper, Andy Robertson, John McGinn and Oli McBurnie – started. Old Firm stars Ryan Jack and Callum McGregor too. Top-level operators at club level, who had to bring their club form to the international arena or this desperate run of qualification failure would be extended.
Home advantage was diluted by the emptiness of Hampden.
There should have been 50,000 inside creating enough electricity to power the national grid but it was cold, empty and wet with only the players’ shouts piercing the silence.
As Robertson mentioned prematch, the motivation was to give the nation something to smile about in these darkest of days.
The loss of Stuart Armstrong, Kieran Tierney and Ryan Christie through Covid issues was a hammer blow 24 hours before kick-off and the news that Under-19 head coach Billy Stark testedd positive yesterday afternoon, forcinging the abandon-abandonment of a matchmatch against England, wasas another anothe r indication of justust how fragile football is at thee moment.
But all of thathat had to be placed to one sidede as Romanian ref Ovidiu Hateganegan blew the first whistlee and right from the start it seemed the Scots ots were going to have their work cut out because Israel started confidently, setting up camp on the Scottish 18-yard line for a spell with Celtic’s Hatem Abd Elhamed at left wing back, looking perfectly at home in his adopted city.
That storm, well more a squall really, was weathered and Clarke’s men gradually grew into the match.
Lyndon Dykes and McBurnie offered a physical focal point that threatened to occupy the Israeli back line which wasn’t overly stretched a month earlier.
The visitors, though, weren’t playing like a team that had won only one of their last nine games.
Given the chance, they zipped the ball impressively across the rainslickedslicked surface and while there wasn’t much penetration, there was plenty of poise.
They certainly had far more of the ball than Scotland in the first half hour, without testing David Marshall. Ye t , six minutes
from the break Scotland contrived to miss a sitter from a set piece.
Robertson’s corner found McTominay in acres of space eight yards from goal but somehow the Manchester United man’s header scraped past Ofir Marciano’s post.
Clarke’s team ended the half better but the outcome was on a knife edge as they headed up the tunnel.
As the clock ticked down, the tension go tighter. Eyal Golasa’s effort curling just over Marshall’s bar did nothing to ease it.
This was excruciating stuff by the time an hour had passed. Scotland had one scramble in the Israeli box and a claim for handball – dismissed by the ref and VAR – but rarely was the visiting defence really rattled.
The belief in the Israelis was growing by the minute.
They continued to have more of the ball and to do more with it.
Clarke made his first switch with 18 minutes left. Lawrence Shankland given his chance to use his clever movement off Dykes with McBurnie making way.
Ryan Fraser was thrown on in the closing minutes for Jack as it got to first-goal-the-winner time. It didn’t come in regulation time. Extra time was just as taught, just as fraught. McGregor had a good strike blocked after Nir Bitton had knocked out a Fraser cross, but that was it for the first period.
Israel looked stronger in the dying minutes and came mightily close when sub Shon Weismann was an inch in away from turning in an Elhamed El cross.
Liam Cooper’s header crashed off the th post from Robertson’s corner in the th last second. Like everything else, it stayed out and it was down to a shootout sh from 12 yards.
Finally, Scotland found six heroes. The Th five scorers and David Marshall and an now we’re 90 minutes – or 120 or another shootout – away from the th Promised Land, which is right on our doorstep.