Key events
Half-time reading
Half time: Scotland 1-0 Belarus
Before the game, Steve Clarke reiterated his message from Thursday night: “You qualify on results, not performances.”
Scotland proved his point during an unconvincing first half at Hampden. Che Adams’ accomplished finish separates the sides, but apart from the goal and some eyecatching winplay from Ben Gannon-Doak, it hasn’t been the greatest watch.
Ah, who cares: Scotland need points, not performances.
45+2 min Gannon-Doak zips infield and tries a left-foot shot from 25 yards. It takes a big deflection, loops towards goal and is saved by the backpedalling Lapoukhov.
44 min Gannon-Doak scurries into space for the umpteenth time tonight. He goes for goal himself, driving a shot from the angle that is pushed round the post by Lapoukhov. He probably should have tried to pass to Adams but that’s easy to say from here.
39 min Belarus have had seven attempts at goal to Scotland’s three. Don’t shoot the stat-peddler.
37 min A decent effort from Barkovski, who ignores a challenge from Robertson and blooters a long-range shot over the bar. Gunn looked untroubled but it was close enough.
36 min We’re all objective here, so let us speak frankly: this will not be a contender for the Utterly Huge Book of Great First Halves.
33 min A slick move from Scotland ends with Robertson guiding a low cross towards Adams in the area. The ball is slightly behind Adams, who screws wide under pressure from Zabelin. There are one or two appeals for a penalty but there was nothing much in it.
32 min “My daughter Evie was born in June 1998, meaning I couldn’t travel to France to see Scotland play in the opening match against Brazil,” writes fairweather fan Simon McMahon, “so I’ve always blamed her for the fact that Scotland haven’t qualified for the World Cup finals since. I was also told on becoming a new parent that the first 30 years were the hardest, and that will be nearly up come next summer in America, so I’m taking that as a sign that Scotland will qualify, ending 30 years of hurt and BRINGING IT HOME, BABY!”
You can probably start calling her Evie now.
31 min McKenna accidentally pokes Barkowski in the eye while jumping to win a header. Not very pleasant but I’m 99.94 per cent sure it was an accident.
28 min Gannon-Doak, Scotland’s main threat, beats Zabenin with laughable ease on the right before his cutback is intercepted at the near post. Classic wingplay.
25 min There’s a short break in play while Pechenin receives treatment. After a sleepy start, Scotland are in control of the game. Just as they were when they were 1-0 up against Iran, eh.
22 min Gannon-Doak beats Zabelin with a nice stepover, moves into the area but then screws his cross into the side netting. He’s not the finished article – duh – but my word, he has so much potential because he beats defenders with offensive ease.
18 min The Belarus defence pushed out in an attempt to play Adams offside, but there was one straggler on the far side and that was proved decisive.
GOAL! Scotland 1-0 Belarus (Adams 17)
Che Adams was onside and Scotland are ahead! A headed clearance was collected by the onrushing Hendry, who fed an early pass towards Adams in the D. He kneed the ball away from the covering Martynovich and belted a left-foot shot into the bottom corner. Nicely done.
15 min Scotland are starting to dominate the ball now, with Gilmour inevitably to the fore. As I type, Che Adams has a goal disallowed for offside. It was expertly taken from Jack Hendry’s pass but the flag went up straight away.
Hang on, this looks onside…
11 min Gilmour slips a lovely early pass down the inside-left channel to Adams, who cuts inside and hits a shot that deflects behind for a corner. It’s swung in and punched away by Lapoukhov.
11 min Another Belarus corner is met by the leaping Zabelin, whose header brushes the roof of the net. A pretty good effort – one that prompts an affronted roar from the home fans.
9 min Hendry’s iffy clearance only goes as far as Yablonski on the edge of the day. He belts a lively shot that deflects behind off the charging McLean.
It’s been a really flat start from Scotland.
7 min Barkovski runs beyond the Scotland defence onto a crossfield pass, moves into the area and slides a dangerous low cross that is put behind by McKenna. Scotland need to wake up.
5 min Gannon-Doak moves into the area from right and tries a pass to Adams that is cut out. More promising from Scotland.
4 min Belarus have made a lively start and are causing the Scotland defence one or two problems. A loose header from Ralston is collected by Malashevich, who makes for the penalty area but then slips over. There were defenders converging anyway.
1 min Peep peep! Belarus, in their mint green change strip, kick off from right to left as we watch.
Steve Clarke’s pre-match thoughts
[On managing Scotland for a record 72nd game] It feels like any other game. We’re well prepared and hopefully the team go on the field, do what they can do and get the result. There aren’t many thoughts about me to be honest.
We want another win, three points. As I said after the last game: you don’t qualify on performances, you qualify on results.
We hope to dominate the ball more than we did against the Greeks. But Belarus have competent footballers; they all play at a decent level. We know what we have to do – it’s easy to talk about it.
Today’s other Group C gameDenmark v Greece in Copenhagen, kicks off at 7.45pm.
“Looking at it objectively,” begins James Humphries, aka Mr Objective, “and considering that one of Clarke’s achievements has been to get us largely doing the job against teams you’d ‘expect’ us to beat, I probably shouldn’t really have this gnawing feeling of dread. On the other hand, {gestures broadly at the history of the Scottish men’s team}.”
An email from Steven Grundy, who speaks for a nation
“The best scenario for us Scots would probably be:
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Smash Belarus 5-0
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Get a dodgy draw in Greece
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Beat the Danes with a cheeky corner on a wet, windy & miserable night in Bonnie Scotland.
“The far more likely outcome, however, is probably:
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Down to 10 men against Belarus after 25 minutes & get a dodgy draw just to give us a quantum of hope
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Get battered 3-0 by a bitter Greek team
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Lose 1-0 to the Danes after conceding a 95th-minute penalty.”
On reflection, is it really the hope that kills?
The players on a yellow card
Scotland Che Adams, Ben Cannon-Doak
Belarus Valeri Gromyko, German Barkovski, Vadim Pigas, Nikita Korzun, Vladislav Kalinin.
Team news
Steve Clarke makes five changes to the side that started against Greece, three of them in defence. Anthony Ralston, Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna, Billy Gilmour and Kenny McLean replace Aaron Hickey, John Souttar, Grant Hanley and the suspended midfield pair of Lewis Ferguson and Ryan Christie.
Scotland (4-2-3-1) Gunn; Ralston, Hendry, McKenna, Robertson; McLean, Gilmour; Gannon-Doak, McTominay, McGinn; Adams.
Subs: Kelly, Gordon, Hanley, Tierney, Dykes, Miller, Souttar, Hirst, Bowie, Johnston, Barron, Mulligan.
Belarus (poss 4-4-1-1): Lapoukhov, Pigas, Parkhomenko, Martynovich, Zabelin; Malashevich, Ebong, Yablonskiy, Pechenin; Gromyko; Barkovsky.
Subs: Belov, pavlyuchenko, myakish, demchenko, karpovich, korzun, kalinin, ruslan Lisakovich, myalkovskiy, kapilevich, kuchko, melnichenko.
Ewan Murray’s preview
Steve Clarke will take a moment to celebrate a significant achievement when Belarus visit Hampden Park on Sunday. It will be game 72 in office for Clarke, surpassing Craig Brown as Scotland’s longest-serving manager in terms of matches.
Clarke’s big picture involves World Cup qualification, with Scotland in a strong position, but he can appreciate his longevity. “I’d be a bit daft if I wasn’t proud because I’m the first guy to reach that amount of games,” he said. “It’s nice, but that’s a little personal thing at the moment. It shouldn’t be about me. It’s about the team and it’s about trying to get to the World Cup so that’s what we’re going to focus on.
“The brief was to qualify for tournaments. We’ve managed to do that twice, but we want to do it again because we’re all greedy. The expectation was to do as well as I could. I’ve always looked at the players and you’re thinking: ‘What can we do to improve?’ Did I think it would last this long? Probably not, but here I am.”
Yes, yes, that Clockwise clip is a bit of a cliché. But really, there are no words that could better express Scotland’s relationship with the World Cup – at least none that I can print before 9pm. Previous generations dreamed of getting beyond the group stages; now the goal is to reach the group stages.
Scotland haven’t qualified for the World Cup since 1998, but Thursday’s comeback victory over Greece has given everyone an industrial-strength shot of the mixed blessing we call hope. Here’s how Group C looks at the halfway stage. (The top team go through automatically, the runners-up go into the playoffs.)
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Denmark P3 PTS 7 GD +9
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Scotland P3 PTS 7 GD +4
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Greece P3 pts 3 gd -1
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Belarus P3 PTS 0 GD -12
If all goes to plan, Scotland will host Denmark in their last group game on 18 November knowing that a win – maybe even a draw, but let’s not get greedy eh – will secure automatic qualification for the World Cup.
Scotland go to Greece, who could be out of contention, three days before that Denmark game. Before we look to those games, it’s important – and I really can’t stress this enough – that they don’t make an emphatic balls-up of today’s game at Belarus at home.
Belarus are the weakest team in the group, and Scotland won last month’s return fixture 2-0. All things being equal, Scotland will win today.
All things being equal! We’re talking about Scotland and the World Cup here. Nothing is equal, least of all the eternal arm-wrestle between hope and despair.
Preamble
Kick off 5pm.
