Scotland U21s suffer Kazakhstan catastrophe as wait for Euros appearance goes on

SCOTLAND’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s U21 Euros came crashing down following a 3-2 defeat in Kazakhstan.

It was always a big ask for Scot Gemmill‘s young team to qualify for the tournament after Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Belgium.

Scotland went into the final game three points behind Friday’s opponents and knew they needed to win in Almaty to stand any chance of finishing second in the group.

But that wasn’t all they required.

They were also holding out for a stunning upset in Leuven in the other match, with Hungary beating the Belgians to allow Scotland to leapfrog them into second place.

And in typical Scotland fashion, the young Tartan Army found themselves behind in the first half – despite Hungary giving them a helping hand by opening the scoring in the other tie through Andras Nemeth from the penalty spot after just nine minutes.

And while Hungary did their job and saw the win out, Scotland failed to grab three points and finished third in the group on 16 points.

It means their 28-year wait for a place in the international tournament continues, with the nation last qualifying coming in 1996.

Aybar Abdulla, Adilbek Zhumakhanov and Yan Trufanov scored for the hosts, while Motherwell midfielder Lennon Miller scored once again for Scotland.

Abdulla stunned Gemmill’s Scots with his stunning strike on the 30th minute but Scotland had chances of their own in the first half, with goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov producing a masterclass between the sticks to deny them on a number of occasions.

Lyall Cameron hit the crossbar early in the first half, while Miller saw a dangerous free-kick strike parried away by the Kazakhstan stopper.

Scotland finally had their breakthrough thanks to Miller’s goal in the second half and they were agonisingly close to making it two just moments later.

The Motherwell star was at the forefront once again as he picked out Adedire Mebude in the box but the Man City starlet slipped and scuffed his chance, hitting the woodwork once again

It proved to be a costly miss as just minutes later Kazakhstan regained their lead and Scotland were down to 10 men.

Celtic defender Dane Murray, who is on loan at Queen‘s Park, wiped out Ivan Sviridov in the box and referee dished out a red card to the unfortunate centre-back.

Scotland did manage to pull another goal back late in the tie through Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen from anther set-piece from Miller, but it proved too little too late for the young Scots.

Dundee ace Cameron missed several chances throughout the match, including a chance in the dying minutes to make things level.

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