Scotland debrief: Andrew Robertson's wing play, the central midfield pairing, moment you may have missed

A look back at Saturday’s match at Hampden Park as Scotland defeated Cyprus 3-0 on the first day of Euro 2024 qualifying.
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Player of the match

A tough one because there was a whole lot of competency without a lot of quality to this Scotland performance. Nobody was particularly poor but there were very few stand-outs. Grant Hanley was the strongest defender, Stuart Armstrong the most impressive of the front three. Scott McTominay scored twice off the bench as he and Ryan Christie injected some much-needed energy into a flagging performance, but can you give this to a substitute? If that’s fine, yeah sure, go for him. If not then Andrew Robertson was probably the best of the starters. He crossed for John McGinn for the opener and set up the third for McTominay. He could’ve done better in two other big moments around the penalty box but the impetus to charge forward was always there.

Defining moment

Scott McTominay celebrates after making it 3-0 to Scotland during the victory over Cyprus at Hampden Park. Picture: SNSScott McTominay celebrates after making it 3-0 to Scotland during the victory over Cyprus at Hampden Park. Picture: SNS
Scott McTominay celebrates after making it 3-0 to Scotland during the victory over Cyprus at Hampden Park. Picture: SNS

The second goal from McTominay killed off the contest. Although Scotland were sluggish it was thoroughly deserved and three of the four substitutes (including Lyndon Dykes and Ryan Christie) played their part in setting up the Manchester United midfielder. All three impressed off the bench.

Ref watch

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Croatian official Bojan Zobenic made some very strange foul calls in the midfield area but he and his assistants got the big decisions right.

Benefit of hindsight

Ryan Jack and Callum McGregor starting together against this level of opposition was overkill. The two have been very good in the pass at helping Scotland to keep possession and dictate the flow of games against tough opposition but that wasn’t needed here. It led to too many square balls which brought down the team’s tempo after they started brightly. To be fair to Steve Clarke, though, he made the right substitutes to address that. Spain on Tuesday will be a very different game, however, so don’t be surprised (or frustrated) if the pair are selected again.

Moment you may have missed

The cameraman filming the Scotland players singing the national anthem lingered quite a bit on Angus Gunn, perhaps wanting to have a very close look if the English-born goalkeeper making his debut knew all the words to ‘Flower of Scotland’.

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