Key events
The other game in Group A1 has ended Portugal 2-1 Croatia. So that means the table currently looks like this …
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Poland P1 W1 D0 L0 F3 A2 Pts 3
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Portugal P1 W1 D0 L0 F2 A1 Pts 3
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Scotland P1 W0 D0 L1 F2 A3 Pts 0
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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. “
… 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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
