Key events
20 min: The resulting free kick, sent into the Portugal box from the right, is only half cleared and drops to Christie, who catches a shot well from the edge of the D. Unfortunately it’s straight at Costa, who gathers without fuss.
19 min: Adams and Christie are both skittled amid a meleé, and it’s another free kick for Scotland. Ronaldo isn’t happy about the decision and has a long chat with the referee. Roberto Martinez isn’t that happy either, getting involved with the fourth official on the touchline. All a bit out of proportion.
18 min: Jota goes into the book for standing on Christie’s foot. It was a foul, sure, but a yellow card seems a bit harsh. Jota was competing for the ball and it didn’t look premeditated.
16 min: Conceição tries for Jota again. Again. Scotland just about deal with it, then Cancelo nearly high-kicks Robertson in the head, and the whistle goes to give Scotland a chance to regroup.
15 min: Conceição is causing all sorts of problems down the right. Again he crosses long, again Jota lurks at the far stick, again Ralston is forced to head behind for a corner. Fortunately for Scotland, again the Portuguese corner is nothing to write home about.
13 min: Portugal are beginning to find their feet after Scotland’s confident start. Conceição wins a corner off Robertson down the right. Fernandes cuts this one back and what follows is a textbook example of over-thinking and over-playing.
12 min: Fernandes swings the corner into the six-yard mixer, but Gordon punches clear.
11 min: Conceição dribbles into the Scotland box from the right. He dinks towards the far post for Jota, but Ralston holds the Portugal striker at arm’s length and eyebrows out for a corner. That’s good defending; had Ralston not stood firm, it would have been a close-range chance for Jota.
9 min: Christie spins to slip Ralston into space down the right. He crosses low for Adams, but the ball clanks into the first Portugal defender. Unlucky. A fine move that was started by McTominay’s drive down the middle.
8 min: Ronaldo’s second and third touches of the ball elicit more loud booing. This is just begging for retribution, isn’t it. And indeed not long after, he’s taking his first whack at goal, from the left-hand edge of the Scotland D. A trundler that’s easy enough for Gordon.
6 min: Fernandes swings a ball into the Scottish box from the let. It sails miles over Ronaldo’s head and into the arms of Gordon.
4 min: Scotland should be leading. McLean takes a quick free kick to release Doak down the left. Doak cuts back for Robertson, who crosses. McTominay is free, six yards out, but the Hampden goal machine slaps a weak header straight at Costa. What a chance!
3 min: Nuno Mendes’ poor backpass allows McTominay to break into the Portugal box. He can’t get a decent shot away, and the flag goes up anyway, Ralston having clattered Antonio Silva to ensure McTominay was able to get away.
2 min: Some early nerve-settling possession for Scotland. Then Portugal take over and get a feel of the ball. Ronaldo has his first touch and cops for some pantomime pelters.
A minute of applause in memory of former First Minister Alex Salmond, who passed away on Saturday … then Scotland kick off. A rousing atmosphere at Hampden. The trademark roar.
The teams are out! A pyro party on the touchline as Scotland and Portugal take to the pitch. The home heroes in dark blue, Portugal in their white and sky-blue-flecked change kit. We’ll be off in a minute or two, once folk have been sent home to think again.
Pre-match postbag. “Portknockie has a charming ring to it,” writes the MBM’s resident paronomasiac Peter Oh. “As for the match, I shudder to think how many goals Port. will knockie into the goal.” Aye, here’s hoping Scotland manage to stay Afloat. (A niche reference there for the Banffshire cognoscenti.)
Meanwhile Simon McMahon adds: “I’m extremely hopeful that Scotland can secure a famous victory tonight. If nothing else, the law of averages says that we’re due a result, but then again the same law convinced me that we were winning Euro 24, that we’d elect some politicians who weren’t completely out of their depth or lining their own pockets, and that I’d stay sober for at least one month this year. We’ve still got November and December, right? Undoubtedly the two best months for sobriety. If you include Anthony Ralston’s loan spell, there are three (former) Dundee United players in the Scotland starting XI tonight. Plus Ryan Gauld on the bench. You can do this, Scotland. Just like you did back in 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1992 1996 1998 2021 2024. What was I saying about the law of averages?”
Portugal make six changes to the side sent out to beat Poland 3-1 at the weekend. Diogo Jota, João Cancelo, Francisco Conceição, Vitinha, João Palhinha and António Silva step up. Meanwhile, though Roberto Martinez has spoken of managing 39-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo’s minutes carefully, Portugal’s 133-goal striker starts.
A reminder of how Scotland have got themselves into their latest scrape: a 2-3 home defeat to Poland, a 2-1 loss in Portugal, and defeat by the same scoreline last weekend in Croatia. All of which means the Group A1 table looks like this …
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Portugal P3 W3 D0 L0 F7 A3 Pts 9
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Croatia P3 W2 D0 L1 F4 A3 Pts 6
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Poland P3 W1 D0 L2 F4 A6 Pts 3
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Scotland P3 W0 D0 L3 F4 A7 Pts 0
In tonight’s other game in A1, Poland welcome Croatia to Warsaw.
Scotland make one change to their starting XI in the wake of the 2-1 defeat in Croatia. Ché Adams takes the place of Lyndon Dykes up front. There are quite a few players on the bench hoping to earn their first cap tonight: Rangers midfielder Connor Barron, Aberdeen defenders Nicky Devlin and Jack MacKenzie, Preston centre-half Liam Lindsay, West Ham midfielder Andy Irving, and goalkeepers Jon McCracken and Robby McCrorie, of Dundee and Kilmarnock respectively. John McGinn, Kieran Tierney, Aaron Hickey, Scott McKenna, Lewis Ferguson, Lawrence Shankland and Angus Gunn are all absent through injury.
The teams
Scotland: Gordon, Ralston, Souttar, Hanley, Robertson, Gilmour, McLean, Christie, McTominay, Doak, Adams.
Subs: McCracken, McCrorie, Barron, Dykes, MacKenzie, Irving, Porteous, Lindsay, Morgan, Nisbet, Gauld, Deviln.
Portugal: Costa, Mendes, A Silva, Dias, Cancelo, Vitinha, Palhinha, Fernandes, Jota, Ronaldo, Conceição.
Subs: Velho, R Silva, Semedo, Dalot, Trincão, B Silva, Félix, Veiga, J Neves, Otávio, Leão, R Neves.
Referee: Lawrence Visser (Belgium).
Preamble
The top-line statistic makes for grim reading: Scotland have won just one of their last 15 matches. That solitary victory doesn’t bring much succour either, coming as it did in an extremely unconvincing 2-0 against Gibraltar, a landmass roughly similar in acreage to that infinitely more picturesque rock, the Bow Fiddle, plus neighbouring fishing villages Portknockie, Findochty and Cullen.
If that (admittedly delicious) statistic isn’t damning enough, here’s some more context. Derbyshire, who came last in cricket’s County Championship this year, won one of 14 games. Rugby league’s London Broncos, bottom of this season’s Super League, won three of 27 at a rate of one in nine. And the worst team in the NFL, the Carolina Panthers, ended last season 2-15. It doesn’t look good, though at least Scotland didn’t trade away Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour and Ben Doak for Anthony Ralston. Poor Sir Purr.
But the thing is, you can push any old argument with data, and that stat doesn’t tell the whole story. Scotland may have stunk the place out at Euro 2024, but their subsequent Nations League performances have been curate’s-egg level at worst, highly promising if you’re being a little more generous. Steve Clarke’s side have gone toe-to-toe with three nominally better sides in Poland, Portugal and Croatia, playing extremely well for long periods in each match, only to suffer late sickeners every time: a clumsy late penalty here, an equaliser judged millimetres offside there, the all-time relentless nature of the evergreen Cristiano Ronaldo the other.
So yes, Scotland could do with some extra quality, it’s true, and at times they’ve been their own worst enemy. But they could also do with a little bit of luck going their way for once. Portugal, ranked eighth in the world, might not be the best opponents to face when searching for that momentum-shifting break. But Scotland’s barren run has to end sometime, and Hampden is where Portugal’s Iberian cousins Spain lost their last meaningful fixture, so why not tonight? Here’s hoping, anyway. Kick-off is at 7.45pm. It’s on!
