The last time Scotland played Gibraltar on the Algarve, Gordon Strachan ended a six-goal romp eulogising over one of the most memorable nights of his career. If Steve Clarke remembers this game at all, it won’t be with any lingering affection.
In the penultimate warm-up clash before facing Germany in Munich in the opening match of Euro 2024, the good news was that Scotland’s winless run finally came rumbling to an end at the eighth time of asking.
The bad came with the sight of Leeds defender Liam Cooper limping from the fray with 12 minutes to play, just days after key striker Lyndon Dykes succumbed to an ankle injury.
The Scots, playing in their pastel blue away kit, spent long spells playing like a team who might have struggled to hit a barn door with a beach ball. From 24 goal attempts, they managed just five on target, a laboured, underwhelming win against the team ranked 203 in the world unlikely to give Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann too many sleepless nights
Handed his 70th international cap, captain Andrew Robertson teed up chance after chance, with Ryan Christie finally taking one with an emphatic finish after 58 minutes.
A spectacular volley from substitute Che Adams five minutes from time gave the scoreline a more acceptable sheen and enhanced the striker’s claims for a start against Germany ahead of Lawrence Shankland. With Dykes ruled out, options are thin on the ground.
It was a tough watch for Scotland boss Steve Clarke (left) as he opted for a seat in the stand
Ross McCrorie and Billy Gilmour hail Ryan Christie (right) after he broke the deadlock
Che Adams (right) takes the plaudits from Ryan Jack after he doubled Scotland’s lead
Eight years ago, the Scots travelled to this venue for a dead rubber after failing to reach Euro 2016. At time up, Strachan gathered his players and staff on the pitch to pose for selfies in front of 11,000 supporters and a celebration of failure epitomised how far the national team had fallen.
Last night Clarke’s team returned to the Estadio Algarve with a place at Euro 2024 already in the bag. Even so, there was precious little to celebrate in the performance this time. If anything, it proved the old theory that Scotland don’t do friendlies.
There was a first senior cap for Ross McCrorie, the only man who might look on the loss of regular right-backs Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson as a stroke of good fortune.
In the absence of the luckless Dykes, stretchered out of training last week, Hearts captain Shankland was handed a chance to stake a claim in attack, with James Forrest, Christie and John McGinn lending support behind. With, it must be said, middling results.
There should be no over-reaction to an underwhelming performance. As far removed from the Allianz Arena as it’s possible to imagine, the whole exercise had the feel of a pre-season friendly from the off. It’s hard to fake competitive conditions sometimes and a lack of urgency and tempo in Scotland’s play contributing to a lacklustre performance.
Germany will be a different proposition and, for that reason alone, Gibraltar struck many as a curious way to prepare for a meeting with Toni Kroos and Jamal Musiala.
A UEFA member since 2013, the British outpost last won a game in November 2022 against Andorra.
Scotland assistant boss John Carver speaks to defender Liam Cooper after he had to go off in the second half, although it’s not thought to be serious
Gibraltar are combination of gnarled old pros and young thrusters. Lincoln Red Imps midfielder Liam Walker was their top scorer – with a grand total of five goals. At the other end of the scale was James Scanlon, a 17-year-old forward with Manchester United.
After 12 defeats in a row – including a 14-0 defeat to France – the team ranked the second worst in Europe were never expected to give Scotland much of a game.
By missing chance after chance, Clarke’s team made the whole business so much harder than it should have been.
Unusually, the Scotland manager was absent from the touchline, taking a seat in the stand to watch players get some minutes in the legs. After just ten appearances for his club all season, Norwich defender Grant Hanley was a case in point. This was the central defender’s first outing for the national team since the epic win over Spain in Glasgow which sparked the march to Germany and he really should have marked it with a first half hat-trick.
One of the few players in last night’s starting XI certain to start against Germany, Robertson teed up chance after chance and, until Christie finally broke the deadlock, his team-mates contrived to miss them all. Hanley set the tone when he missed a sitter after 10 minutes, heading the ball into the ground and over the crossbar from a corner.
Before half-time, the centre half had a header saved superbly by Gibraltar’s debutant keeper Jaylan Hankins before slicing an easy chance wide of the post from three yards.
He was hardly the only culprit. Forrest sliced a feeble effort wide, while Kenny McLean headed a Robertson cross off target.
Ross McCrorie made his Scotland debut at right-back and kept a clean sheet, at least
The suspicion that the second half could hardly be much worse proved optimistic. Even the winning goal was scrappy, Bournemouth attacker Christie lashing high into net, through a ruck of bodies, after Robertson hung yet another cross up at the back post.
Put up for media scrutiny the day before the game, Cooper addressed the worrying number of injuries dampening expectations of this becoming the first Scotland team to reach the second stage of a major tournament for the first time.
Insisting no one could slacken off or hold back, the half-time replacement for Hanley must have wished he’d stayed put on the bench when he crumpled to the deck in the 78th minute. Limping heavily from the fray, the Leeds defender made for a dejected figure. It looked a bad one.
The second goal was much more like it. Adams put his laces through a McGinn cross towards the back post to make the scoreline a little more respectable.
Around the time Adams scored the second, Tommy Conway was converting a header for the under-21 side against Turkey. On a night when the lack of cut and thrust in attack was impossible to miss, Clarke may yet be tempted to throw the Bristol City forward a shot at glory.
