Greece 3 Scotland 2
A NIGHT of utter chaos in Athens where permutations went hand in hand with palpitations. From the madness of it all, Scotland emerged unscathed despite losing to Greece in a five-goal thriller.
With Denmark only managing a 2-2 draw at home to lowly Belarus, Steve Clarke’s side live to fight another day. The dream is still alive.
The equation for Scotland remains the same. Beat Denmark at Hampden on Tuesday night and they will qualify for the World Cup. It’s that simple.
It will be a night for the ages as Clarke and his players seek to clinch a place on the grandest stage of all for the first time in 27 years.
Ryan Christie celebrates after scoring Scotland’s second in Greece
Ben Gannon-Doak celebrates after his goal sparked Scotland’s fightback in Greece
The script may yet be written for Craig Gordon to be Scotland’s hero. At the age of 42, he came out of cold storage and started his first match in six months here in Piraeus.
Scotland could have been on the end of a hiding had it not been for Gordon. It was a reality check during a first-half onslaught from a Greek side who had already been eliminated.
It was a first half in which they showed the hosts too much respect. By the hour, Scotland were 3-0 down, having looked panicked at the outset despite the lack of a hostile atmosphere in front of a sparsely populated crowd of only 18,405, before staging a dramatic comeback.
It was as if a switch was flicked. They perhaps realised that Greece are nowhere near as good a team as some would have you believe.
In the end, Scotland were unharmed despite the defeat. After the full-time whistle sounded, the players waited patiently on news from Copenhagen.
In a corner of the stadium, the Tartan Army erupted when it was confirmed that the Danes had blown it. Their visit to Glasgow now becomes one of Scotland’s biggest games in a generation.
Knowing the magnitude of this final double-header, Scotland chose to spend the week in Turkey at a warm-weather training camp before making the short journey across the border to Greece.
Ryan Christie rises to head home Scotland’s second goal in Greece
It was a chance for Clarke to spend some quality time with his players on the training pitch ahead of two pivotal qualifiers. That was the theory, at least.
But given how slow they were out of the traps, you had to question what Scotland had actually been doing in terms of preparations.
The start was dreadful. Clarke’s side fell behind after only seven minutes, as a long ball from Greece goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos caused all manner of problems.
John Souttar was all over the shop and completely misjudged the flight of the ball. Gordon made the initial save from Vangelis Pavlidis, with the rebound falling for skipper Tasos Bakasetas.
If Souttar made the initial error, Grant Hanley didn’t cover himself in glory either. He was too slow to close Bakasetas down as he fired the ball low past Gordon.
Scotland were spooked. Clarke spoke pre-match of how the players panicked against Belarus last month and that there would be no repeat of that here in Athens.
But his faith was misguided. His team were a bag of nerves, with Hanley then shanking a simple pass to Gordon out of play to concede a corner.
Bakasetas fires past Craig Gordon to open the scoring for Greece
Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano was very fussy at times and made a few bizarre calls, such as his insistence that Greece should be given the ball back after virtually every stoppage or injury.
His manner and tone clearly irked some of the Scotland players, but the performance of the referee could not be advanced as an excuse for their own shortcomings.
On 19 minutes, Gordon made a strong one-handed save to deny Tzolis. Only moments later, Tzolis then shot high and wide from a good position.
Scotland were walking a tightrope. Another Gordon save on 27 minutes saw the veteran keeper repel a Panagiotis Retsos header from a corner.
Souttar then lost a header in midfield and Andy Robertson lost Konstantinos Karetsas. The ball was crossed to the back post, but the finish from Tzolis was tame and didn’t trouble Gordon.
Had Scotland been three or four goals down by the time we reached the half-hour, there could have been no complaints. Clarke’s side had been dreadful.
Pavlidis was stretching to meet a Tzolis cross at the back post and couldn’t quite guide his shot on target. Again, another huge let-off.
Scotland finally woke up and started to play some decent football in a five-minute burst immediately before half-time.
A neat move down the left saw John McGinn feed the ball inside to Che Adams and the striker laid it off with a clever backheel.
Scott McTominay struck it first time with his left foot. Vlachodimos was beaten all ends up, only for the ball to rattle the crossbar.
Adams then had a great chance when an Aaron Hickey cross found him at the back post, but he headed wide. Ben Gannon-Doak was next up. A good ball from McTominay released the winger into space. One on one with the keeper, he took aim at the far corner but his finish lacked conviction.
Scotland probably didn’t want half-time to come. They had another brilliant chance just eight minutes after the break when Ryan Christie intercepted a loose pass from the Greeks in midfield.
He took a heavy touch and had to square the ball for Adams, whose first shot was blocked by Karetsas before his second was saved by Vlachodimos.
Ben Gannon-Doak is foiled by Greece goalkeeper Vlachodimos
It looked like the game was well beyond Scotland when another Hanley mistake allowed Andreas Tetteh to tee up Karetsas, who curled the ball past Gordon with a sublime left-foot finish.
Greece then hit the post with a header from Retsos, before Tzolis made it 3-0 by firing past Gordon from fully 25 yards. His first mistake all night, the Scotland keeper missed the ball as he attempted to palm it away.
Then came the great revival. McGinn whipped a ball in from the left and Gannon-Doak thumped it high into the roof of the net.
News had now filtered through from Copenhagen that Belarus had taken a shock lead against Denmark. When Christie met a Robertson cross and headed into the bottom corner, bedlam. Utter chaos.
It could easily have been 3-3 had Adams not fluffed his lines with another great chance, with Christie then forcing a fine save from the home keeper.
Vlachodimos denied Scotland once again when a Gannon-Doak cross found McTominay, but his shot was turned over the bar.
Greece had skipper Bakasetas sent off as Scotland chased a late equaliser. It never arrived, but Caledonian joy was unconfined come full-time.
