Scotland 0-0 Israel (0-0 AET, 5-3 Scotland on pens)
08/10/20
European Championship play-off semi-final
Nothing seems easy for Scotland at the moment, not even playing a side forty places below you in the rankings, at home, with the motivation of getting to the play-off finals and finally laying to rest the demons of not making a major tournament for twenty-two years (technically twenty-three with this year’s European Championships delayed twelve months due to this thing you might have heard of – coronavirus).
Scotland won the game 5-3 on penalties with Oli McBurnie, Scott McTominay, Lawrence Shankland, Kenny McLean and John McGinn burying their spotkicks, whilst the prolific Eran Zahavi had his penalty saved by David Marshall.
Covid caused havoc again before this evening’s fixtures, not only with the England versus Scotland U-19’s match abandoned in the first-half due to fears one of the coaching staff had contracted the virus, but also with Stuart Armstrong, Kieron Tierney and Ryan Christie having to isolate – particularly painful for the latter two who had shown negative results in testing, but will still miss next Saturday’s games for clubs Arsenal and Celtic against Manchester City and Rangers.
-Preview, Scotland v Israel: let’s get England!
First-half nerves in staring down the ugly face of history
A lot of pre-match debate centred around Scotland’s formation for the crunch tie against Israel. Would Scott McTominay play at his regular position in midfield or deputise at centre-back? Scotland boss Steve Clarke opted for the latter, the Man Utd player holding the right side of a three man defence in a 3-5-2 formation.
McTominay’s inexperience in the position seemed to put the team at unease instantly, with Scotland inviting Israel on.
Scotland’s first shot to slightly perturb Israeli and Hibernian keeper Ofir Marciano didn’t come until the thirty-first minute – a deflected pick-up for Marciano, limped off the boot of Celtic’s Callum McGregor from outside the area.
Scotland looked disjointed and toothless, whilst Israel were getting slicker on the ball as the match wore on.
Twenty-one minutes could have been the time for the Tartan Army, watching from home in yet another game played behind closed doors, to release a sigh of familiar disappointment.
Israeli winger Manor Solomon was released down the left wing, drove into David Marshall’s box, sold Andy Robertson a dummy and ripped a grass cutter that Oli McBurnie did well to deflect for a corner.
The best chance of the first-half fell to McTominay on thirty-nine minutes. Finding himself in acres of space in the box, McTominay flashed Robertson’s corner millimetres wide of Marciano’s back-post.
Replays showed the Man Utd graduate putting his hands to his face in disbelief, knowing he should have put his nation one-nil up.
More anguish in the second-half
Israel showed the same conviction and intent in the second-half as they did the first, pushing Scotland back as Steve Clarke’s boys endeavoured to lay a glove on their Mediterranean opponents.
The industrious Lyndon Dykes was harshly penalised for challenging a high ball four minutes into the restart, the QPR striker wiped out in the process of Marciano clearing from under his crossbar.
Israel were cutting out the more impressive opportunities though. A nice exchange between Eyal Golasa and Israel dangerman Eran Zahavi saw Golasa whip a shot just over Marshall’s goal.
Scotland weren’t so much cutting as hacking, like being stuck in the long grass at Carnoustie.
The inform Ryan Jack miss-hit a shot in the box on fifty-six minutes. Two minutes later John McGinn, in a glorious position to place the ball on the head of Dykes, overhit his cross, and McGinn fluffed his lines again moments later, tamely volleying wide after a miscued clearance by Israeli fullback Eli Dasa – obviously the Aston Villa midfielder hadn’t received the hymn sheet before the match.
With just under twenty minutes to go before extra-time, Clarke replaced McGregor with Lawrence Shankland and McGinn tried an audacious chip from the edge of the Israel box. It was difficult to tell at this stage who had lost the plot more – Clarke or McGinn.
The game was becoming more open as the minutes passed by, but there was no more quality on show. Hurried sprints towards opponent’s boxes broke into bogged down melees.
Set-pieces looked to be the key to unlocking this stalemate and Motherwell’s Declan Gallagher almost got through the door when his header flashed wide from a corner five minutes to the end.
Israel pinned Scotland back for the remainder of official time and with Norway getting a late equaliser against Serbia it looked as though it would be a long night in deciding section C’s path to Euro nirvana.
Extra-time and Scottish redemption in penalty shoot-out
If the match was a scrappy affair who knows what extra-time would be like.
As the extra period wore on Scotland sat deeper and deeper. The closest the deadlock came to be broken came at the death of the death.
Cooper found the tightest piece of space in the air and headed Robertson’s corner onto the post just after Elhamed’s dinked cross almost reached Israeli substitute Shon Weissman, who got ahead of Robertson at the backpost and stuck out a leg, but couldn’t reach the ball and divert it into the net.
So now it was dreaded penalties, and if Scotland were anything like their cousins South of the border this would end in tears.
However the Scot’s pulled through, perhaps claiming victory under the naivety of never having faced a penalty shoot-out in a major championship.
Scotland, whilst not perfect during the match, were to the inch in the shoot-out, McBurnie, McTominay, Shankland and McLean empathically putting away their spot-kicks, whilst McGinn saw his shot squeeze under the on-diving Marciano.
Serbia in the play-off finals in November for a place in the tournament proper.
Scotland, 3-5-2: Marshall, O’Donnell, Gallagher, Cooper, Robertson(C), McTominay, Jack, McGregor, Dykes, McBurnie, McGinn
Subs: McLaughlin (GK), McCrorie (GK), Paterson, McClean, Porteous, Fleck, Fraser, Taylor, Shankland
Israel 5-3-2: Marciano, Dasa, Nir Bitton, El Hamed, Tibi, Yeini, Natcho(C), Golasa, Solomon, Dabbur, Zahavi
Subs: Harush (GK), Nitzan (GK), Menachem, Dgani, Lavi, Weissman, Seba, Karzev, Arad, Abu Fani, Elmkies, Abu Hanna
Up next:
Scotland’s next game is their third match in the Nations League against Slovakia at Hampden on Sunday.
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 