Emotional Christie summed up what a privilege it was to be in Belgrade
THERE was no singing along to the strains of Baccara in the press seats. No leaping up and down to Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. Yet, make no mistake. On an emotional night in Belgrade, journalistic decorum well and truly left the premises. A small band of pressmen not given to spontaneous displays of affection were reduced to the status of fans with typewriters. For one night only, we were all Ryan Christie.
As goalkeeper David Marshall was besieged by team-mates, those nagging doubts over flying to Serbia in the first place were firmly dispelled.
On the one hand lurked legitimate public-health concerns over foreign travel and coronavirus.
On the other, the nagging fear that this was the one. The night when Scotland finally conquered a rampant phobia of qualifying for major tournaments and ended the nation’s agony.
A one-leg play-off against a flaky Serbia team with no fans in the ground and an affliction to playing at home was riddled with opportunity. The fear of missing out on something big proved more powerful in the end.
If Scotland were going to the party, it was essential to be there.
And, by the end of a heroic victory, it no longer felt like a risk being in Belgrade. It felt like a privilege.
Christie’s emotional post-match interview summed up an epic night best.
Grilled by Sky Sports, the goalscorer struggled to hold it together on camera.
Right there, as he bared his soul, you saw precisely what it meant. Not only to the player himself. Not only to his team-mates and management. Not only to the rump of travelling j ournalists toiling to meet deadlines after extra-time and an inconvenient penalty shoot-out.
In that instant, the Celtic midfielder was speaking for an entire nation. Watching it, we all had a tear in the eye.
For more than two decades, Scotland’s national team have been a source of disillusionment.
Indifference stalked their every move. When people spoke about them at all, they tended to do so in disparaging terms.
Seventies’ kids like this one grew up taking participation in the World Cup finals for granted.
Between 1974 and 1990, it happened five times in a row and, back then, national humiliation meant failing to beat Peru or Holland to reach the second round.
But the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Bloc not only opened the borders of Europe. It also made it a good deal more difficult to qualify for tournaments.
And a whole generation of Scots under 30 now have no idea — or memory — of how it feels to be there.
When Christie struggled to keep a lid on a cocktail of emotions, then, he spoke for anyone who yearns to know how it feels to have a national team to be proud of.
On Thursday, there was joy, there was pride. And, after the trauma of losing an equalising goal in the 90th minute, the overwhelming emotion was relief. The monkey was finally off the back.
When Luka Jovic headed home, there were less than 30 seconds to play.
The goal was harsh because Scotland had been fine up till then. Yet, in that instant, there was no surprise. Cries of ‘typical Scotland’ echoed round the country.
In reality, there was nothing typical about the way Clarke’s side finally burst the dam.
It was a remarkable victory for an unremarkable team with three free- transfer signings i n their starting XI.
One was Marshall, a player who should have been a no-brainer for Celtic last summer.
The Parkhead club preferred to cast their net wide and spend £5million on Greek international goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas when the cut-price solution to their pr o bl e ms lay right u n der their nose.
When the penalty shoot- out came on Thursday night, there were solid grounds for fearing the worst.
Serbia’s keeper Predrag Rajkovic had saved four spot-kicks from seven for French club Stade de Reims this season already.
But, just as he did against Israel last month, Marshall offered more resistance under fire than the ancient walls of the Belgrade Fortress.
A world-class fingertip save from Nemanja Gudelj in extra-time had already kept Clarke’s team in the contest.
He then dived to his left to deny Serbia’s star man Aleksandar Mitrovic from 12 yards to end two decades of i nternational torment.
Scotland had big, unlikely heroes
There was joy, pride and at the final whistle, the relief was overwhelming
all over the pitch. Alongside £25m Kieran Tierney and Liverpool Champions League winner Andrew Robertson were players bought and sold for buttons.
When Lyndon Dykes roughed up Christopher Jullien or Filip Helander playing for Livingston, it was never attributed to the possibility he might actually be a good player. It was always blamed on Celtic and Rangers defenders having a bad day.
Watching the Australian-born striker terrorise Serbia, scouts from both Glasgow clubs should have been squirming in embarrassment. They missed a trick.
You look at Dykes and Declan Gallagher now and wonder what Clarke might have done with a team of Darren Fletchers and James McFaddens.
When the SFA board were casting around for a replacement for Alex McLeish, the Kilmarnock manager was the stand-out candidate. Now we know why.
He took a modest club side and made them hard to beat. The Rugby Park team became more than the sum of their parts.
The governing body don’t get everything right. Some think they don’t get anything right.
But, right now, Clarke’ s measured, undemonstrative, intelligent management is making them look a good deal smarter with every game.
Facing projected losses of £4.5m next year due to coronavirus and no fans in grounds, the governing body began the process of making 18 members of staff redundant last week. But qualification for the Euro 2020 finals will now rake in a sum of around £8.5m.
And while a bonus pot for players will swallow up almost half that money, the spare change eases the financial strain on Hampden’s sixth floor significantly.
Problems caused by Covid-19 are not unique to football. The nation’s physical and mental health is fraying at the edges.
Piece by piece, the little things which made l i fe bearable are slipping away.
Restaurants, pubs and cafes can no l onger sell al cohol. Non-essential travel and exercise are also restricted. The virus remains a menace to the NHS and society at large.
Set against that backdrop, another Scotland failure on the f ootball pitch wouldn’t have mattered much at all.
But when people need a light at the end of the tunnel, Ryan Christie and his team-mates have become torchbearers.
Scotland are heading back to a major international football finals. And if a game against England at Wembley can’t bring a smile back to the nation’s face, things are even worse than we thought.