Scotland 2-1 Belarus reaction

The Scotsman

Mark Atkinson and Graham Falk react to Scotland's narrow World Cup qualification win at Hampden Park.

Transcript

00:00Fall time here at Hamden Park as Scotland have took a very nervy 2-1 win against Belarus

00:06in their World Cup Group C qualification game. Mark, that was more difficult than it needed

00:11to be, but job done.

00:12Yeah, three points in the bag, which is the most important thing. Probably not the performance

00:17that many of us hoped from Scotland. There were actually some boos at the end, a smattering

00:22of jeers from the Tartan army, they weren't happy with what they saw. I think firstly

00:26credit to Belarus, I thought they played very well, played probably the best we've seen

00:30them in this qualification campaign. They took heart from the fact that Scotland weren't

00:34at their best and I thought it always looked like they could score a goal. But seeing campaigns

00:40like this sometimes you just need to get the job done. I think before the match we were

00:44hoping that Scotland would score early and kick on and maybe help the goal difference. Scotland

00:48did score early through Shea Adams, but I felt the team lacked cohesion, they looked a bit

00:53tired, pretty flat. You could tell early on it wasn't going to be a comprehensive victory.

00:59But crucially, ahead of two massive games next month, Scotland are still in control of their

01:03own destiny. And I think we've just got to try and look at the positives. We have games

01:09like this, the most important games of Scotland didn't slip up. There should be no panic at

01:13this stage, we're still in a great position. As we record, we're top of the group, we'll see

01:18what happens in the game between Denmark and Greece this evening and Copenhagen. Steve

01:23Clarke should be happy with where they are, albeit I'm sure he'll admit that wasn't Scotland's

01:27best performance because it really wasn't.

01:29No, and I think you go back to Thursday as well, not to go over all ground, but neither

01:34performance has been perfect. But if you'd given Scotland fans and Steve Clarke six points

01:38before and five goals, you'd snap your hands off for that, wouldn't you?

01:41Yeah, I mean, look, you're always going to get bumps in the road in a qualification campaign.

01:46And I think Belarus came here, probably actually played with freedom rather than fear. They

01:52looked like a team that had nothing to lose whatsoever. I think, for me, Scotland possibly

01:57could have played the two up front to try and get the job done easier. I thought she had

02:02a little bit isolated at the time still. Midfield didn't get us forward as much. I thought

02:06it was a difficult night for Kenny McLean and Billy Gilmore in the centre, I think they never

02:09really got to grips with the game. But then you look at how Belarus cut Scotland open and

02:14perhaps actually Steve Clarke was mindful of that happening. In the end, you could sit

02:18and analyse it any which way you want. The points are in the bag and we move on. We're

02:24back here for the Denmark game in mid-November. We go to Piraeus before that and no matter what

02:30happens now, we're going to have a really good chance of getting at least a playoff spot.

02:34So, in the end, I think Scotland must be happy to get out with six points. As you said, really

02:40important to remind ourselves, having been offered six points at the very beginning of

02:44this campaign, of this little section of the campaign, we're taking it. So yeah, job done.

02:50Really exciting times for Scotland. Two massive games but let's hope there's less

02:54far in those two because there's quite a bit tonight as well. Yeah, yeah, VAR took centre

02:58stage. I mean, I think we all saw a real thought, a real type of Belarus' goal that was disallowed.

03:02But Tomine was fouled. I was surprised that wasn't given by the referee in real time. The

03:06penalty one, I thought it was a penalty personally when I first saw it. You just see Shea Adams'

03:10little hand just getting up there to stop it. So, you can see why that wasn't given.

03:15Yeah, a bit of VAR drama. That's just more than a day of football. For us, crucially,

03:20the VAR officials got it right for that goal that was disallowed for Belarus. Had it gone

03:251-0 at that stage, Scotland could be in real trouble. As it was, Scott McTominay scored

03:29the second goal. Not long after this. Job done. Job done. Job done.

03:35Job done.

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