Scotland stay in contention, Netherlands move closer

Scotland players celebrate a goal against Belarus at Hampden Park Stadium on Sunday. [AFP]

Scotland ground out a 2-1 home win over Belarus on Sunday to stay in contention for automatic qualification to the 2026 World Cup, while the Netherlands closed in on securing their berth at the tournament with a win over Finland.

Steve Clarke’s Scotland sit joint top of Group C with Denmark, after the Danes beat Greece 3-1 with Rasmus Hojlund opening the scoring for the home team.

Denmark are first in the pool on goal difference but their win in Copenhagen ensured Scotland of at least a play-off spot as they bid to make a first World Cup appearance since 1998.

The pool-toppers meet in the final qualification matchday on November 18 in Glasgow.

“We know every game from now until the end is so important,” Scott McTominay told BBC Scotland after defeating Belarus.

“It’s been good in terms of points picked up but we know we’ve got to be better than what we’ve shown, everybody does, me included.

“We’ve got to be at a higher standard than this.”

Che Adams scored the opener for the hosts on the quarter-hour at Hampden Park in an otherwise uninspiring performance by Scotland.

They thought they were due a penalty just shy of the hour for a succession of incidents in the Belarus box, including two calls for a foul and hand-ball shouts going both ways, but after a lengthy VAR review the referee declined the home side’s appeals and awarded a free-kick out.

Scotland then had VAR to thank on 63 minutes when Evgeni Malashevich’s leveller was eventually disallowed for a foul in the build-up on Napoli Serie A winner McTominay.

In a busy sequence for the VAR officials, Adams put the ball into the Belarus net for a second time in the 70th minute, but video replays confirmed the original on-field decision that the Torino man was offside. McTominay eventually managed to seal an important victory for Scotland as he lashed home with his left foot with six minutes remaining.

Donyell Malen, Virgil van Dijk, Memphis Depay and Cody Gakpo all found the net as the Dutch maintained their three-point lead at the summit of Group G with a 4-0 defeat of Finland at the Johan Cruijff ArenA.

Poland remain on the Netherlands’s heels following a 2-0 win in Lithuania, where Robert Lewandowski netted his 87th international goal. [AFP]