Rusty Scots fail to lay down a marker for play- off crunch
Scotland eased rather than sprang i nto action f ollowing a nine- and- a- half- month hiatus.
The l i ghts were on, there was nobody at home and Scotland were frustrated in their attempt to post a statement of intent ahead of next month’s rather more important Euro 2020 play- off fixture against t he same set of dangerous opponents.
Nevertheless, Steve Clarke will have learned much from a night where he road- tested a three- man backline that al r eady has f ans debating whether it should be deployed again. Of course, there were no supporters inside the stadium to witness this Clarke “eureka moment” – if that is what it is – for themselves.
The occasion felt momentous for reasons other than these unprecedented circumstances for a home international. Can Clarke now rest slightly easier at having found a way to accommodate both skipper Andy Robertson and fellow left- back Kieran Tierney in the same team? That was one very cautious conclusion on an eerie, chilly night at Hampden.
Scotland will have to be more dynamic and also more alert at the back on 8 October if they wish to progress to a play- off final place.
That said, they are not the first side to fall victim to the prolific Eran Zahavi, whose equaliser with 17 minutes left was his 13th goal in his last 13 international appearances.
A quick estimate suggested there were fewer than a hundred souls inside the stadium itself, excluding both squads. Ryan Christie’s penalty past Hibs goalkeeper Ofir Marciano to put Scotland ahead a minute before half- time after John Mcginn had been bundled to the ground drew polite applause.
It was 35 minutes before the first shot on target and that came from Israel midfielder Dor Peretz. David Marshall handled comfortably enough but this wasn’t the high energy start Clarke would have expected from a team eager to make up for lost time.
The immutable laws of football have not changed in the interim. When a team misses a glaring chance at one end it is almost inevitable that they will be made to pay for it at the other. Scotland were the beneficiaries in the first instance. Another age- old law is being hurt after failing to heed a warning as S cotland were guilty of in the second half.
The hosts sur vived when Peretz just failed to connect with Eli Dasa’s cross from the right but, minutes later, Israel were level thanks to an explosive finish high past Marshall from Zahavi, after a neat onetwo with Dabbur. Israel were probably worth a share of the spoils in the opening Group B2 fixture that can, perhaps, lead eventually to a World Cup play- off place. More pressing, however, is next month’s rematch in the Euro 2020 playoff. Clarke cannot say he has not been warned.
Israel’s No 11, the Shakhtar Donetsk playmaker Manor Solomon, opened up Scotland and the ball eventually made
its way out right, from where Dasa swung in a cross. The ball evaded Scotland’s re- shaped defence and left the normally lethal Dabbur with a free header at the back post. He, however, aimed too straight and Marshall blocked well before an offside flag halted play.
As so often happens, t he opposition responded to this l et- off by going one better themselves. A minute later Christie’s corner was swung over and Lyndon Dykes justified his selection by heading the ball down on the edge of the six- yard box. Eytan Tibi seemed unaware of Mcginn’s presence and clipped him. The roar of “penalty!” around living rooms the length and b r e a d t h o f S c o t l a n d was almost audible inside a silent Hampden. Christie converted stylishly high into the top lefthand corner.
In truth, the award seemed soft but then it wasn’t as if the referee Slavko Vincic had been pressurised into the decision by a persuasive home crowd. He might, though, have been conscious of turning down an earlier, perhaps more valid Scotland appeal when Taleb Tawatha flattened Mcginn in the box.
It turned out that Clarke’s hints on the eve of the game about having held video meetings with the players and hoping they were “quick learners” did in fact herald a new system, largely to accommodate Tierney’s return to the side for the first time in nearly two years.
He took his place on the left side of a three- man defence that included another English Premier League player in Manchester United’s Scott Mctominay on the right side.
Other early obser vations a s t hose f e w s oul s i ns i de the ground surveyed a fully operating Scotland side for the first time in just over 42 weeks included Mcginn looking noticeably bulkier, possibly overly so. He gave way for Stuart Armstrong with 11 minutes left as the Scots sought to recover their lead.
Mcginn and Christie were p l ay i n g o f f f u l l d e b u t a n t Dykes, whose neat early touches signalled he was someone equipped for this standard of football following his rapid rise from Queen of the South to Queens Park Rangers, via Livingston. Oli Burke replaced him just after Israel’s equaliser but he’d already done enough to suggest we shall see much more of the converted Scot.
Marshall, Mctominay, MCKenna, Tierney, Forrest, Jack, Mcgregor, Robertson, Mcginn ( Armstrong 79), Dykes ( Burke 74), Christie. Palmer, Mclean, Paterson, Fleck, Cooper, Gallagher, Mclaughlin, Mccrorie, O’donnell, Taylor. ISRAEL: Marciano, Dasa, Bitton, Tibi, Elhamed, Tawatha, Peretz ( Cohen 72), Natcho, Solomon ( Glazer 90), Zahavi, Dabbur ( Weissman 79). Abu Hanna, Itomar Nitzan, Elmkies, Arad, Avraham Rikan, Yeini, Dgani, Almog, Harush.