Ewan Murray has picked himself up off the canvas at Hampden Park to file his verdict. Here’s his report! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
Post-match postbag o’pain. “You’d wonder who’s making the decisions at Old Trafford following this MoM performance from Scott McTominay” – Dean Kinsella
“Portugal are gonna kick the [word redacted by Family Website Editor] out of us, aren’t they” – James Humphries
“Not to take away from the importance of this match, but surely the big news of the night is that San Marino beat Lichtenstein, for their first win in two decades. Nicko Sensoli earned his spot in football folklore by scoring the game’s only goal” – Kári Tulinius
The other game in Group A1 has ended Portugal 2-1 Croatia. So that means the table currently looks like this …
Poland P1 W1 D0 L0 F3 A2 Pts 3
Portugal P1 W1 D0 L0 F2 A1 Pts 3
Scotland P1 W0 D0 L1 F2 A3 Pts 0
Croatia P1 W0 D0 L1 F1 A2 Pts 0
Next up for Scotland: Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday evening. “Sometimes I hate being right,” sighs James Humphries. “<sinks head into hands, makes animal noises of despair and defeat>”
… which is not to take anything away from Poland, who played well themselves and in Nicola Zalewski, their relentless matchwinner, arguably boasted the man of the match. But Scotland, 20 places below Poland in the world rankings, were their equals in the first half, despite the scoreline at the break, and highly impressive in the second, combative and committed, and just occasionally easy on the eye. However, give away two soft penalties, and it’s always going to be an uphill battle. Still, when the pain subsides and the dust settles, that’s a promising display after the lumpen misery of Euro 2024. Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour and Andy Robertson excelled, while debutant Ben Doak crackled with promise. Onwards and upwards … albeit taking baby steps, eh.
FULL TIME: Scotland 2-3 Poland
Scotland were the better team, as well. But here we are again.
90 min +10: Gauld tries to volley a sensational equaliser from distance – think Stan Libuda at the same end for Borussia Dortmund in the 1966 Cup Winners Cup final - but it’s high and wide.
90 min +9: Poland’s fans bounce about. The rest of Hampden falls silent.
90 min +8: Hanley is pinching the bridge of his nose, both eyes closed. He knows what a stupid challenge that was. Zalewski was going nowhere. Sheer idiocy, to go along with Ralston’s first-half rush of blood. A pair of completely avoidable penalties have cost Scotland a famous result.
GOAL. Scotland 2-3 Poland (Zalewski 90+7 pen)
Gunn gets a hand to the ball, but Zalewski’s penalty sneaks into the bottom-left corner. Poland have had three shots on target. Three goals.
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Penalty for Poland
90 min +6: Zalewski dribbles hard down the inside-left channel. Into the box he goes. Hanley extends a leg in an attempt to poke the ball away – needlessly – and brings his man down. Another daft challenge. Another penalty.
90 min +4: Here’s Zalewski up the other end now, meeting a right-wing cross and shinning it well wide left of the target. Poland soon come again, Buksa attempting a lob from distance. Nope. Both teams searching for a dream winner.
90 min +2: Morgan barrels down the left before cutting infield and curling towards the far stick. Doak prepares a volley but Zalewski’s presence ensures he can’t meet the ball. Bułka claims.
90 min +1: Morgan’s delivery isn’t all that, but he gets a second chance to put it in. Morgan floats to the far stick, where Hanley harmlessly slaps a header high and wide.
90 min: Morgan and Robertson combine down the left to win a corner. Before it can be taken, the board goes up to show eight added minutes.
89 min: McTominay one-twos with Gauld down the inside-right channel. The pair have very little room in which to work, but the passes find their target nevertheless. McTominay takes possession of Gauld’s cute cushioned flick and steers a sidefoot wide left. Bułka had it covered but that was lovely football.
88 min: Poland win a corner down the right. Scotland have to wait an age before dealing with it, as the referee’s kit continues to malfunction. Eventually play is restarted and Moder heads the set piece harmlessly wide.
86 min: Doak tears past Dawidowicz down the right … but he can’t get a cross away because two more defenders arrive on the scene to snuff out the danger. That was an electric run from Doak, though, one that took three opponents to deal with.
85 min: Scotland want this. They’re snapping into every challenge, and winning most of them. The home fans enjoying themselves.
83 min: Slisz is almost immediately booked for hanging a cynical leg across the in-flight McTominay.
82 min: Poland make a double change, taking off Piotr Zieliński and Sebastian Szymański and sending on Jakub Moder and Bartosz Slisz. Meanwhile Billy Gilmour makes way for Lewis Morgan.
81 min: Doak, who was chasing back so hard because he’d lost the ball, is fine to continue. Warm applause for his efforts as he hauls himself back to his feet. A folk hero is born. Ralston is OK too.
79 min: Doak and Ralston clatter into each other while performing an old-fashioned pincer movement on Zalewski. No foul, but they both pay the price, lying in a tangled heap as Scotland play on. Robertson crosses from the right and Walukiewicz does well to block, Bułka claiming well with Poland on the back foot. Then the whistle goes so Scotland’s stricken pair can get some treatment.
78 min: Hampden is roaring now, thanks to McTominay’s tenth goal in Scotland colours. Every challenge met with joyful bedlam.
77 min: Gilmour was involved earlier in that move, too, winning the ball back before setting Doak on his way. Napoli will be pleased with that goal. Serie A watch out!
GOAL! Scotland 2-2 Poland (McTominay 76)
Doak takes his first touch in international football, and he’s involved in the build-up to a goal! He dribbles down the right before slipping in Ralston on the overlap. Ralston cuts back for McTominay, who can’t miss from six yards! Scotland deserve this.
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74 min: A pause in play as referee Glenn Nyberg requires a new battery pack for his headset.
73 min: That’s it, meanwhile, for Robert Lewandowski, who is replaced by Adam Buksa. Krzysztof Piątek is also replaced, making way for Jakub Piotrowski.
72 min: A triple change for Scotland, and on come two debutants in Ryan Gauld and Ben Doak. Lawrence Shankland is the third sub. Lyndon Dykes, Ryan Christie and Kenny McLean make way.
70 min: McTominay crosses deep from the right. Dykes makes a world-class nuisance of himself, winning a header he had no right to win. But Poland deal with the ball coming back across the goal.
68 min: Corner for Poland on the left. Szymański loops it in. Piątek takes a kick from Christie across the chest, but the referee blows for a Scotland free kick, Christie having been fouled himself a split second earlier.
66 min: Ralston crosses from the right. Too long. Christie tries to return it from the left. Too long again. This nevertheless qualifies as ‘better’ from Scotland, who had fallen quiet since scoring.
65 min: A huge pocket of space opens up for McTominay down the middle. He romps into it before scuffing a poor long-distance effort towards the bottom right. Easy for Bułka in the Poland goal. Shooting may have been the incorrect choice there, too, because Christie was screaming to be released into the box down the inside-left.
63 min: Poland have responded really well to Scotland’s early second-half strike. They’ve been the better team since. Scotland’s momentum has stalled. “In the interests of taking some of the load off James Humphries, I believe that puts Billy Gilmour on two international goals and no club ones,” notes Tom Hopkins. “Along with Scott McTominay, what makes him such a goal machine only for Scotland?” Somewhere in Brentford, a statistician shivers.
61 min: Zieliński’s backheel down the left takes Ralston out of the game. Lewandowski reaches it, rounding Gilmour on the byline to tee up Piątek to score, but the ball had run out of play before Poland’s captain pulled it back.
59 min: Szymański shifts the ball in from the right and sends a curler inches wide of the top-left corner. What an effort.
57 min: Zieliński turns poor Ralston inside and out, before dinking a cross from the left that Robertson has to turn out for Poland’s first corner. Zieliński goes over to take it himself, and it’s a waste of time.
56 min: “I know this bit,” writes our old pal James Humphries. “It’s the hope before the inevitable crushing disappointment.”
54 min: A weak Piątek header bounces harmlessly wide right. But Poland are beginning to bare some teeth, showing consistency in attack for the first time in the match.
52 min: Zalewski is booked for petulantly Declan Ricing the ball away after conceding a garden-variety foul near the centre circle.
51 min: Lewandowski drags a tame shot miles left from 25 yards. A poor end to a fine move that saw Poland play their way elegantly out from the back and through the Scotland press.
49 min: McGinn, the blood pumping, wastes the corner in the comedic fashion, hoicking it many miles over everyone’s head and out for a goal kick.
48 min: Scotland’s tails are up, up, up. McTominay drives down the right and wins the home side’s first corner of the game. McGinn to take.
47 min: That’s put a much more realistic sheen on the scoreline. Hampden is bouncing.
GOAL! Scotland 1-2 Poland (Gilmour 46)
A mere 20 seconds into the second half, Scotland are back in it! Dykes breaks down the right. His low cross isn’t dealt with. McGinn and Christie combine to ensure the ball doesn’t get properly cleared, and it drops to Gilmour, who slams it through a crowded box and into the bottom left from 12 yards!
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Poland get the second half underway. Sebastian Walukiewicz replaces Jakub Kiwior.
In the other match in League A1, Portugal are leading Croatia 2-1 at the break. Diogo Dalot gave the hosts the early lead in Lisbon, and Cristiano Ronaldo doubled it just after the half-hour, before Dalot put through his own goal during the closing stages of the half.
HALF-TIME POSTBAG (courtesy of this MBM’s sole reader/co-writer James Humphries). “I actually think old nae-feet Lyndon Dykes is crucial for Scotland: he’s a pain in the hole for defenders, he’s a physicality to him that Che Adams just doesn’t, and he has never met a lost cause he didn’t want to chase. Hand on heart, I think if he’d not got crocked before the Euros we would have had four points out that group. Bloody Ralston, on the other hand, should be fired as far away from the Scotland team as possible. Get Stevie O’Donnell back in.”
HALF TIME: Scotland 0-2 Poland
A big second-half performance is required, because we’re only 45 minutes in, and Scotland’s League A1 hopes are already hanging from a shoogly peg. This, after all, is on paper their easiest fixture in this group.
45 min +4: Christie is fouled out on the right. Gilmour’s free kick nearly drops to Ralston at the far stick, but it’s not Scotland’s night so far. Poland clear.
45 min +2: Thing is, you can make a decent argument for Scotland having been the better side in this first half. But this is a story that’s been told many times before.
45 min: Poland have had two attempts on target, and are two goals up. There will be three additional first-half minutes.
GOAL! Scotland 0-2 Poland (Lewandowski 44 pen)
Lewandowski gives Gunn the eyes and sends the keeper the wrong way. The ball goes into the bottom left as the keeper dives towards the right. That’s goal number 84 for Poland’s captain!
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Penalty for Poland
43 min: Zalewski nips in ahead of Ralston down the inside-left channel. He’s clipped from behind, inside the box, and Lewandowski will have the chance to double Poland’s lead from 12 yards. A daft challenge.
41 min: Lewandowski is eased off the ball by Hanley, lands awkwardly and wants a free kick. He’s not getting one, despite some gymnastic strivings that would put Simone Biles to shame. As he yaps and complains, Scotland play on, Christie whipping a cross from the left to the far stick. Dykes, alone on the corner of the six-yard box, should slam home, but rustles the side netting instead. He should have scored.
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40 min: Good news for Scotland – and Aston Villa – as McGinn springs back up and is able to continue.
39 min: McGinn is down, having tangled with Zalewski. There didn’t look a lot in it, but Scotland’s playmaker is shaking his head sadly.
38 min: McTominay battles his way into the Poland box down the right. He’s lightly brushed from behind by Kiwior, but doesn’t take the opportunity to go down. Instead he cuts back fiercely from the byline, but there’s nobody in blue to slam home.
37 min: Dykes v Dawidowicz III sees the Scotland man skittled as he chases a long Robertson pass down the left. No free kick this time. Dykes is either going to score, get Dawidowicz sent off, or get himself sent off. Or all three. Say what you will about the Birmingham striker, he puts a shift in and he’s value for money.
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35 min: Robertson swings the resulting free kick into the box. It’s no good, straight at Bułka.
34 min: It’s Dawidowicz versus Dykes again, the former barging the latter into the back under a high ball. The Polish defender goes into the book.
32 min: Some exciting end-to-end action, as Lewandowski’s attempt to release Piątek down the left is intercepted by Ralston, and McTominay strides off on the counter. He eventually loses the ball after sashaying past a couple of challenges, and then Dykes barges into Dawidowicz, some retribution for a tug earlier in the move. Play is stopped for a Polish free kick just outside their own area. For a beautiful moment, Scotland were on the march there.
30 min: Scotland haven’t let the disallowed goal get them down. Christie drops a shoulder to barge in from the left flank and sends a screamer across the face of goal and not too far away from the bottom-right corner. “From my admittedly one-eyed perspective, the really frustrating thing is that we look better than Poland so far,” argues James Humphries. “Standard, ain’t it - never do things the easy bloody way.”
29 min: Great cross from Robertson, mind.
27 min: Not even sure, having seen the replay, that McTominay made contact with his foot to force the ball over the line. Off the arm, the keeper flapping, McTominay kicking fresh air, the full circus event. A shame that goal couldn’t stand, not least because it might have been the scrappiest finish in the entire history of association football. These things are all part of the game’s rich fabric.
NO GOAL. Scotland 0-1 Poland
Ah. McTominay didn’t chest down the cross; it hit his hand. VAR intervenes, and though Hampden boos, it’s the correct decision. McTominay should really have connected with his header, in all honesty, and scored that way.
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GOAL! Scotland 1-1 Poland (McTominay 23)
Robertson curls towards the far stick. McTominay – who else? – meets it with his chest then forces it into the top-left corner from a couple of yards. Bułka flapping around.
22 min: Scotland are enjoying a little bit of joy down this left flank. Another Robertson cross, but there’s nobody in the middle. Then McGinn draws a foul from Urbański out on the other side of the field. Robertson to take. Scotland load the box.
21 min: McGinn turns and slips Christie into space down the inside left. Christie finds McTominay to his right. McTominay enters the box but his body shape is never right for a shot and he skies the ball miles over the bar and quite a way left to boot.
20 min: Scotland continue to snap at Poland, Szymański now taking a whack from Robertson. It’s all eagerness rather than aggression, to be fair.
18 min: McTominay betrays a little frustration by absolutely clattering into the back of Szymański. You’ve seen bookings for less, though for a while the referee wasn’t even going to whistle for a free kick. McTominay will be happy enough with the eventual middle ground, as he trots off unpunished.
16 min: Christie causes a fuss down the left and cuts back for Robertson, who hooks into the mixer. Dykes competes for a header, but in an over-enthusiastic manner and the whistle goes. This is a decent enough response to falling behind, even if Bułka hasn’t had a shot to field yet.
15 min: Robertson rolls the free kick across the face of the box, allowing the Polish defence to close down McTominay as he prepares to shoot. No good. “Great shot of Stevie Clarke there with a big bag behind him that simply says ‘drugs’,” reports James Humphries. “He’s obviously no more confident than I am.”
14 min: McTominay bustles, causing bother as he always does, down the inside right. He’s skittled just outside the box and this is a free kick in a dangerous position. Robertson stands over it.
12 min: Scotland try to respond quickly. Robertson sends an up and under into the box from the left. Bułka claims, but then drops under pressure from Dykes, who attempts to swivel and hook the ball goalwards while prone. He can’t get any purchase behind the ball and the keeper claims at the second attempt.
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10 min: That was a fine shot by Szymański, off the inside of the post, and yet Gunn might have done better. The keeper over a wee bit late. In the interests of balance, ITV co-commentator Neil McCann thought the shot “unstoppable”.
GOAL! Scotland 0-1 Poland (Szymański 8)
… and now they take their second, and now they have the lead. McLean gives Gilmour a hospital pass in midfield. Urbański makes off with the ball. He offloads to Szymański, who strides down the middle before sending a swerving, dipping effort into the bottom right from 25 yards.
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7 min: Poland show in attack for the first time, Zalewski making good down the left before gliding infield and scuffing a shot towards the bottom left. Easy for Gunn, but after Scotland’s bright start, it’s Poland who have taken the first shot in anger.
6 min: McLean snaps into a couple of tackles in the middle of the park. Twice he strips the Poles of possession; twice his team-mates fail to react by snaffling the loose ball. He gesticulates in mild irritation, but that’s good tenacious play by McLean. Onwards and upwards.
4 min: That was a crisp little move down the left, and Scotland continue to start in a confident manner, giving Poland no time on the ball while knocking it around neatly themselves. More of this, please.
2 min: Dykes pings a pass down the left for McTominay, who strides into space. McTominay tries to return the ball with a low raking cross, but Dykes hasn’t been able to keep up with play. Poland’s new keeper Bułka ushers the ball through his six-yard area and away.
Scotland kick off. McLean gets the ball rolling. Hampden roaring now!
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The teams are out! As the players emerge from the tunnel, a sell-out Hampden doesn’t exactly roar – not yet, anyway – but the applause is warm and sustained. Scotland in blue with yellow flashes, Poland in second-choice red. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes, after handshakes, coin tosses, pennant swapping, and patriotic music in the folk idiom.
Scotland captain Andy Robertson will make his 75th appearance in dark blue tonight. He’ll become only the seventh man to reach that milestone. Here’s where he currently sits in the pantheon … with John McGinn not too far behind him.
Kenny Dalglish (102 caps, 30 goals)
Jim Leighton (91 caps)
Darren Fletcher (80 caps, five goals)
Alex McLeish (77 caps)
Paul McStay (76 caps, nine goals)
Craig Gordon (75 caps)
Andrew Robertson (74 caps, three goals)
Tom Boyd (72 caps, one goal)
John McGinn (69 caps, 18 goals), Kenny Miller (69 caps, 18 goals), David Weir (69 caps, one goal)
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Wojciech Szczęsny, formerly of Arsenal and Brentford, has retired, so Marcin Bułka of Nice takes his spot in the Polish goal. Michał Probierz’s starting XI features a couple of Premier League stars in Arsenal’s Jakub Kiwior and Southampton’s Jan Bednarek, while Jakub Moder of Brighton is on the bench. Robert Lewandowski, 36 and fighting fit, will start the match looking for his 84th goal in his 153rd appearance for his country.
Never change, Steve Clarke. And he’s not going to. Not really. There are no debutants in tonight’s Scotland starting XI, with just three changes to the team that started the defeat against Hungary at Euro 2024. Calum McGregor has retired, while Che Adams and Jack Hendry are injured, so in come Lyndon Dykes, Ryan Christie and Kenny McLean. Five players sit on the bench hoping to make their debut: Josh Doig, Max Johnston, Connor Barron, Ben Doak and – this may make you feel old – Scotland’s one-time wonderkid and mooted answer to Lionel Messi, Ryan Gauld, who is now 28. Hey, he’s been waiting for over a decade, what’s another 60-odd minutes before he finally gets a run-out?
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The teams
🔢 Team news is in.#SCOPOL pic.twitter.com/H5eZUrcV9U
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) September 5, 2024
🆕 SKŁAD
— Łączy nas piłka (@LaczyNasPilka) September 5, 2024
Nasza „jedenastka” na Szkocję!
__#SCOPOL 🏴🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/gZywzhxBxI
Preamble
Ah the vagaries of form, fixtures and fortune. Scotland embark on a top-tier Nations League campaign for the first time, promoted to League A as part of a fine run during 2022 and 2023 that included statement victories over Ukraine, Norway and Spain. Meanwhile the auld enemy England were getting gubbed four at home by Hungary en route to relegation to League B.
Those days are past now. England went on to make the final of Euro 2024, Spain won the whole thing, and Hungary sent Steve Clarke’s men homeward tae think again. No point poking at old wounds, other than to wonder if Scotland can rise now and be … OK, let’s stop that. But the team really does need to get back on the horse after the hopes of 2022 and 2023 were so systematically crushed in Germany, having lost seven and drawn four of their last 12 matches, their only win coming against Gibraltar, and a throughly underwhelming 2-0 at that. Possible debuts for Ryan Gauld and Ben Doak could get Hampden roaring again. Poland, who also endured a miserable Euros but can still boast Robert Lewandowski, and have never lost a competitive fixture against the Scots, stand in their way. Kick-off is at 7.45pm BST. It’s on!
