NEVER IN DOU Clarke’s men end 23-year pilgrimage with shoot-out victory over Serbia
IT has taken 23 years, one month and a day. There have been no fewer than 10 failed attempts during that time. And countless tears have been shed by players, managers and supporters along the way.
But Scotland have, at long last, qualified for the finals of a major tournament again after a night of excruciating tension and late drama in the Euro 2020 play-off final against Serbia in Belgrade.
In typical fashion, the national team, who had been by far the better team during the course of the 90 minutes and had edged in front through Ryan Christie, made life far more difficult for themselves than they needed to by conceding an equaliser with just 24 seconds of regulation time remaining.
Luka Jovic, the Real Madrid striker who had come on with 20 minutes left, slipped his marker Scott McTominay at a Flip Mladenovic corner at the very death. His downward header hit the sodden turn, spun beyond David Marshall and arched into the top right corner.
Scotland endured some anxious moments in extra time, including in added-on time at the end of the second period when Serbia won another corner, but somehow clung on to take the match to a shoot-out.
Andy Robertson and his team-mates had beaten Israel on spot-kicks – the first in their history – in the semi-final at Hampden last month by converting all five of their penalties. But their heads were clearly down and their limbs exhausted. Could they raise themselves once last time? They could.
Leigh Griffiths, Callum McGregor, McTominay, Oliver McBurnie and Kenny McLean all made no mistake from 12 yards out.
Their rivals buried their first four too. It fell to their star striker Aleksandar Mitrovic to take it into sudden death. However, Marshall guessed the right way and denied his fine effort with his left hand.
The Scotland goalkeeper checked with Spanish referee Antonio Lahoz that his save stood as the Serbian players protested that he had come off his line early. When he got the nod from the match official wild rejoicing commenced. They were entitled to let themselves go after such a heroic display.
Not since Scotland defeated Latvia 2-0 at Parkhead way back on October 11, 1997, to book their place at France ’98 has a team in dark blue achieved such a feat. It was an incredible moment.
Steve Clarke, who succeeded Alex McLeish as manager last year, deserves enormous credit for the accomplishment. He has transformed the fortunes of the national team in exactly the same way he turned around Kilmarnock. This result stretched Scotland’s unbeaten run to nine games. Not since 1976 have they enjoyed such a consistent streak of form. They will go into Group D along with England, Croatia and the Czech Republic and will have a tough task reaching the knockout rounds.
But who would bet against them doing so after this?
That there were no supporters inside the Rajko Mitic Stadium because of coronavirus restrictions. Aleksandar Kolorov, the vastlyexperienced Serbian captain, was unable to take his place in the starting line-up due to not being fully ft. Elsewhere, midfielder Luka Milivojevic was ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19.
But their manager, Ljubisa Tumbakovc, was still able to field a forward line that comprised Sergej MilinkovicSavic, Mitrovic and Dusan Tadic.
Still, the visitors started on the front foot and contained the hosts in their own half without creating much in the way of scoring chances.
Lyndon Dykes, the Australian-born forward who only made his international debut in August, was once again immense in the air and caused his markers no end of problems. He won the majority of the long balls his teammates shelled forward to him.
Lahoz awarded Scotland a free-kick after 10 minutes when John McGinn went down following a challenge by Nikola Mlenkovic, who picked up a yellow card, as he chased down a Dykes flick on just outside the Serbia penalty box.
Christie stepped forward to try his luck and got his attempt on target. But his effort lacked power and was easily gathered by goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic.
The home team went close 13 minutes later when Mitrovic laid the ball back to Sasa Lukic on the edge of their opponents’ area. The midfielder, though, fired wide of the right post.
McGinn should have done better after Stephen O’Donnell and Christie combined well to tee him up with a shot and nobody got on the end of a Kieran Tierney cut-back after the left-back had made a powerful run upfield. But it was an impressive and encouraging opening 45 minutes by Scotland.
Robertson should have put the national team ahead five minutes into the second half when Dykes squared the ball to him on the edge of the Serbia box. He had the space he needed to steady himself and pick his spot. Rajkovic was exposed. The Liverpool man sliced high over the crossbar.
But Christie struck just a minute later. McGregor intercepted a slack clearance by Filip Kostic and fed his Celtic team-mate ahead of him. The playmaker moved away from goal, turned sharply and slotted through the legs