Serbia 1 – 1 Scotland (Scotland win 5-4 on penalties)
Euro 2020 qualifying play-off (final)
12/11/20
David Marshall saved Alexandar Mitrovic’s spot-kick to give Scotland a five-four victory on penalties and send the nation through to its first major international tournament in over two decades.
Along with Marshall’s save, a second-half Ryan Christie strike will go down in folk-lore as Scotland defeated Serbia in the final round of qualification and entered the delayed 2020 European Championship proper.
Christie linked up with club teammate Callum McGregor to score midway through the second half to make it one-nil to the Scots.
Forgotten Real Madrid talisman Luka Jovic equalised with a header in the ninetieth minute of regular time.
David Marshall saved Alexandar Mitrovic’s penalty in the shoot-out to finally send Scotland to a festival of football in twenty-two years after Griffiths, McGregor, McTominay, Burke and McLean all buried their spot-kicks.
The win means Scotland will go to the 2020 European Championship which is being hosted next June across Europe after being delayed a year due to Covid.
Further articles:
-More reaction as Scotland beat Serbia to go to Euros for first time since 96
-Scotland beat Israel on penalties to set up final qualifier vs Serbia
-Andrew Considine gets first call-up for Scotland senior side aged 33
Reaction: “Unbelievable”, “Lost for words”, “Hope it makes people smile”
“We said we would try put a smile back on everyone’s face. I hope they enjoyed the moment as much as we did.”
Euro 2000, 04, 08, 12, 16, World Cup 02, 06, 10, 14, 18, none of it matters anymore as the ghosts of the past have finally been laid to rest.
Marshall could only say he was lost for words at the end of the match. Christie – with tears in his eyes – said it was “amazing” and “unbelievable”, but so much credit goes to Steve Clarke who has quietly gone about his business and turned round the footballing fortunes of a nation.
Clarke told Sky Sports after the game:
On the game: I thought we were the better team, we just couldn’t get a second goal to kill them off.
On Serbia’s equaliser: You have to be so proud of the players on the way they responded to that because it was a sore one.
How much it means to Clarke: I had a little glint in my eye (after Marshall saved the pen)
“Magnificent night” for everyone in Scotland: We said we would try put a smile back on everyone’s face. I hope they enjoyed the moment as much as we did here and they can smile tomorrow.
Match report: Christie and Tierney replace McBurnie and Cooper in a tense first half
There was huge debate over the starting line-up against the Serbs, giving boss Steve Clarke a healthy headache before kick-off.
Clarke was always going to be reserved in tinkering with his squad, being a manager who favours sticking with a group of players and giving them time to gel.
He made only two changes to the side that last played in European qualification, but those two changes were pivotal, particularly in shuffling his trusted back three.
Christie came in for McBurnie. Not so contentious a decision considering the Celtic man provides the heady combination of guile and speed up top.
Christie might have found himself on the bench had Ryan Fraser been fit.
The burley and busying Newcastle midfielder missed out due to injury after a superb display in Scotland’s last game against the Czech Republic.
Considine would perhaps be a little more aggrieved to find himself on the bench after his impressive international start at the ripe age of thirty-three.
The Aberdeen centre-back has a one hundred per cent record for the Scots, residing in two national sides that have conceded zero goals in the last 180’ minutes of football.
Considine was replaced by the high profile Tierney (who returned to the squad on the back of a 3-0 spanking by Aston Villa with club side Arsenal).
Scotland had in fact locked out teams for over 340’ minutes coming into the match including clean sheets against Israel, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Even though international matches can be rather teething affairs compared to the frenzied and often more celebrated club game, any substantial build-up of minutes shutting teams out of goal is something to be treasured, which is why Steve Clarke would have most certainly had his heart in his mouth on twenty-three minutes – over 370’ minutes since he last saw his team concede – when Sasa Lukic’s shot rolled just wide of David Marshall’s left hand post after a Mitrovic lay-off.
Proceedings were akin to a chess match as two evenly matched sides dealt with tricky conditions – the rain fell incessantly throughout the game.
Scotland’s first chance to rein in history didn’t come till thirty minutes in, when McGinn found himself with room on the left side of Predrag Rajkovic’s goal but his toepoke was straight at the keeper.
McGinn has been one of Scotland’s most consistent performers during Clarke’s reign and one player in the side that doesn’t give his manager a headache in selection.
The former Hibs and St Mirren man has to be one of the first names on the team sheet.
How McGinn didn’t get a free-kick after being attempted at wrestled to the ground by Sevilla’s Nemanja Gudelj on thirty-nine minutes is anyone’s guess, but referee Antonio Lahoz ignored McGinn’s protestations even after the midfielder had broken free of the choke-hold and still tried to carve something out the opportunity.
Nil-nil at half time in an affair that could go either way.
Second half – Last minute heartbreak
The performance didn’t belay the Scottish under-achievement that has come with qualification for the last ten major tournaments.
But a sense of that Gaelic discontent did start to materialise when, just after the restart, captain and Premier League winning Liverpool starlet Andy Robertson blazed a shot over the bar after an excellent Lyndon Dykes lay-off.
If anyone had the skill and know-how to score tonight it would be Robertson, who is a pivotal part of Jurgen Klopp’s free-winning Liverpool juggernaut.
Yet when Dykes found himself in after a slip by Stefan Mitrovic, his lay-off was blasted closer to the trajectory of an elevator shaft than a football shot.
Even so, Scotland didn’t come out the second half fearing history but seemed more determined than ever to overcome it, and overcome they did on fifty-two minutes when Celtic players Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie linked-up to put the Scots ahead.
McGregor did well to intercept a Serb pass and fed it to Christie who seemed to defy physics by twisting his narrow frame around the ball with his back to goal and guide it into the net via the post from eighteen yards.
Scotland one, Serbia nil, thirty-eight minutes to go.
Two minutes of madness ensued midway through the second half when both teams seemed to realise what was at stake.
McGregor got it started by having the audacity to let rip from almost thirty yards, but his pile driver swerved just wide of Rajkovic’s right hand post.
Serbia responded when Fulham danger man Aleksandar Mitrovic towered above everyone at the back post to nod the ball just wide.
Then Christie conjured another chance after the Scots went route one.
Marshall’s goal-kick got all the way through to Christie who had beaten the offside trap and, even with four very well drilled Serb defenders in front of him, the Celtic wingman lined up from the right hand edge of the box and saw his shot flash across Rajkovic’s goal.
Scotland were looking comfortable to hang on and enter the promised land but then a flurry of Serbia crosses produced a corner for the “Eagles” and from that corner – in the ninetieth minute of the game – substitute and forgotten Real Madrid man Luka Jovic found space in the centre of the box and his header bounced up off the turf and into the top corner of David Marshall’s net.
The first goal Scotland had conceded in over seven hours of football.
Extra-time
Hearts sank and chests full of baited breath exhaled when Jovic scored only his third goal for Serbia during a career that has seemed to died the most torturous of deaths at the Bernabeu, but still Scotland fought on.
Stephen O’Donnell had a casual volley tipped over the bar two minutes into extra-time and from the resulting corner Ryan Jack hit a voracious half volley that just went over Rajkovic’s goal.
Serbia had certainly smelt the coffee by now and in the pit of Scottish supporter’s bellies came the feeling the chance for Scotland had passed.
No more so was that feeling prevalent than when Nemanja Gudelj – lucky to still be on the pitch after the treatment he’d been dishing to McGinn- whipped a shot across Marshall which the Derby keeper did superb to turn round the post with the very tips of his fingers.
Penalties – never in doubt
It was with a sigh of relief that Scotland made it through to penalties, having never lost a shoot-out.
All five of Scotland’s penalties were emphatically put away by Leigh Griffiths, McGregor, McTominay, Oliver Burke and Lenny McLean.
Serbia matched Scotland until the last penalty when David Marshall dived down to save Mitrovic’s spot-kick.
Scotland finally return to Europe’s festival of football, to be held in June next summer.
Man of the match: Ryan Christie
McGinn and McGregor had shouts for MOTM with the work-rate they put in the middle of the park but the Celtic forward just pipped it. Christie’s speed and agility up top caused Serbia problems and left them thinking all night long. His goal was superbly taken.
Serbia, 3-4-3: Rajkovic, Gudelj, Mitrovic (->108′), Milenkovic, Lazovic, Maksimovic (->70′), Milinkovic-savic (->70), Lukic, Kostic (->59′), Mitrovic, Tadic (C)
Subs: Dmitrovic (GK), Rockov (GK), Katai (->70′), Mladenovic (->59′), Spajic (->108′), Radonjic, Kolarov, Gacinovic, Vlahovic, Jovic (->70′)
Scotland, 3-4-3: Marshall, O’Donnell (->117′), Gallagher, Robertson (C), McTominay, Tierney, Jack, McGregor, Dykes (->83′), Christie (->87′), McGinn (->83′)
Subs: McLaughlin (GK), Gordon (GK), Paterson (->87′), McLean (->83′), McKenna, Cooper, Armstrong, Burke, McBurnie (->83′), Griffiths (->117′), Palmer, Considine
Goals: Christie 52’, Jovic 90’
Up next: v Slovakia (away)
Penultimate game of Scotland’s Nations League campaign. Another important encounter for Clarke’s boys who could finish top of their group. They play Slovakia away, Sunday 15th Nov, KO 14:00.
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 