World Cup qual - Scotland keep hopes alive

Eurosport - Thu, 02 Apr 10:56:00 2009

Scotland reignited their World Cup qualifying hopes after a slender 2-1 victory over Iceland in their crucial Group 9 clash at Hampden Park.

FOOTBALL Alan Hutton Scotland Iceland - 0

Ross McCormack gave the home side the lead in the 39th minute, before Indridi Sigurdsson stunned the home fans with an opportunist strike just after half-time.

But Steven Fletcher's 65th minute header grabbed all three points for under-fire Scotland boss George Burley, and kept his side's campaign very much alive.

Burley had dropped Allan McGregor and Barry Ferguson to the bench as he made some strong decisions in what was a vital home game for the Scots.

The hosts started the brighter as Iceland struggled to match their early intensity, with McCormack a potent outlet down the left in particular.

A marauding run by Alan Hutton in the seventh minute - an indication of things to come - was ended by a challenge from Aron Gunnarsson inside the area, which prompted tentative claims for a penalty, but the appeals were waved away.

McCormack then showed his burgeoning confidence in a Scotland shirt two minutes later, with a hugely ambitious curled effort from the edge of the penalty area, but it did not trouble Gunnleifur Gunniefsson in the Iceland goal.

Fletcher almost found a yard of space inside the Iceland box when James Morrison cut the ball back to him from the right in the 15th minute, but the forward's shot was deflected wide by Gretar Steinsson.

On the half-hour, as the visitors came into the match with more certainty, Arnor Smarason whipped in a devilish cross from the right, which forced Alan Hutton to back-pedal frantically at the back post to head clear with Heidar Helguson lurking behind him.

Skipper for the evening in Ferguson's absence, Celtic's Stephen McManus made an impeccably-timed interception at the other end five minutes later, with Palmi Palmason foraging down the left and crossing in for the otherwise subdued Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Kenny Miller had a chance to open the scoring after finding a yard of space inside the box, but dallied too long instead of taking his shot first-time, and was duly dispossessed by Danielsson in the 38th minute.

But a minute later, McCormack showed the conviction which was required: superb wing-play by Hutton culminated in a cross which Steven Fletcher wisely let run for the diminutive winger, who drilled his shot in off the crossbar.

Another strong run from Hutton saw the Tottenham defender surge into the Iceland box, before bringing a smart stop from Gunnleifsson down to his right, parrying the ball wide in the 50th minute.

But four minutes later, slack marking from Scotland enabled Palmi Palmason to scamper through into the area and strike Gordon's crossbar, before Sigurdsson pounced sharply on the rebound to level the scores.

But a crucial decision gave Scotland the chance to regain their lead in the 65th minute: Morrison won a corner for his side, with the retreating Helguson bewildered after seeing the ball strike his opponent's knee on the way out of touch.

From the subsequent corner whipped in by McCormack, McManus rose in commanding fashion to head back into the area for Fletcher, who powered his header past Gunniefsson to send Hampden Park into delirium.

A glorious chance for Morrison followed to give the hosts a welcome cushion, after he was put through by Darren Fletcher, but the winger dragged his shot narrowly wide of the far post after evading his marker Danielsson down the right.

Scotland hung on impressively in a tense finale as Iceland stepped up their intensity.

Fine goalkeeping from Gordon denied Helguson in the 88th minute, claiming the ball at the feet of the forward after Gary Naysmith had dived to meet a loose ball inside his own six-yard box.

The win lifts Scotland above their opponent's in the Group 9 table, giving them a three-point cushion in second place, albeit having played a game more than Macedonia, and two more than Norway.

In the other match in Group 9, Netherlands struck three early goals to set up a crushing 4-0 win over Macedonia which edged them closer to World Cup qualification.

Liverpool forward Dirk Kuyt opened the scoring from close range on 16 minutes following a pass by Real Madrid winger Arjen Robben, who set up Klaas-Jan Huntelaar nine minutes later to double the hosts' lead.

An excellent pass from substitute Wesley Sneijder created Kuyt's second four minutes before the interval and Rafael van der Vaart completed the rout two minutes from time.

Dutch substitute Ryan Babel could have scored a hat-trick after replacing Robben but goalkeeper Tome Pacovski prevented further damage until Van de Vaart's late strike.

The Netherlands top the group with a maximum 15 points from five games, eight ahead of Scotland.

The Dutch next play Iceland away on June 6 and host Norway four days later.

Dan Quarrell / Eurosport / Reuters

Comment 24 - 43 of 103

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. great news to bin this scumbag he is the worst player­ ever to have pulled on the scotland jersey, my granny­ is a better plater and she is 92 and in a wheel chair,­ get rid of all the english loving scumgers players and­ get true scotsman who will take pride in the jersey­ even if that means looking to lower level clubs then­ with true scotsmen on the field playing with pride for­ this nation then scotland will go places ie world cup­ 2012

    From sirstevejones16, on Wed 1 Apr 3:00PM
  2. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    ALL ENGLISH FOOTBALL
    PREMIER LEAGUE – FA CUP – CARLING­ CUP
    CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – UEFA CUP

    ALL MATCHES ON­ INTERNET: PREMIER LEAGUE, FA CUP, CHAMPIONSHIP,­ CARLING CUP, LIGA, SERIE A, BUNDESLIGA, CHAMPIONS­ LEAGUE - UEFA CUP AND MUCH MORE

    ALL THE HIGH LIGHTS­ OF PREMIER LEAGUE MATCHES

    From WWW.PREMIERSHIP.ALTERVISTA.ORG, on Wed 1 Apr 2:58PM

  3. Real Radio is gonna be cracking tonight with Ewen­ slaughtering Fergie and Roughie saying its not a­ problem Fergie should not have been dropped or Mad Mac

    From Stuart, on Wed 1 Apr 2:55PM
  4. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    re-34-you can't judge ferguson over his spell in­ england as he was troubled by injuries, and as soon as­ he started playing well, he left because of family­ issues. shame coz hughes would have got the best out of­ him

    From edman91, on Wed 1 Apr 2:55PM

  5. Best thing that could happen to Scotland is to get rid­ of Barry "The Crab" Ferguson as he only plays­ sideways!!!! He doesn´t play with pride and there are­ far more better midfielders than him to choose­ from.

    Serves you right Fergie, and i hope you are­ kicking yourself tonight knowing that you were not part­ of the winning team.

    Grow up!!!!!!

    From Grant, on Wed 1 Apr 2:44PM

  6. point 39 is that graham alexander your talking­ about?you could always put him beside weir and dailly­ in your defence,and beat the record for the oldest­ defence of all time!because let's be honest that­ would be the only record that shower o sh it scumgers­ are likely to beat!

    From nevt61, on Wed 1 Apr 1:27PM

  7. Barry ferguson aint good captain for scotland or­ rangers.I went to rangers match with my 2 yr old when­ he was leaving ibrox a lillie fan kicked his car and he­ sore at all the rangers fan and was really abusive dont­ deserve to be any captain.As for mcgregor we should­ have alexander in goals hes done well for rangers.

    From david, on Wed 1 Apr 12:57PM

  8. Anyone care to comment on Graham Alexanders performance­ against the Dutch

    From stevoc1968, on Wed 1 Apr 12:55PM

  9. As a Rangers supporter, I couldn't agree more with­ Ferguson and McGregor being dropped. Ferguson has been­ on borrowed time in relation to his Scotland captaincy­ for some time and, I would add, also in terms of his­ Rangers' captaincy .... he doesn't lead,­ can't command and his decisions on and off the­ field leave a lot to be desired !

    A for McGregor, his­ goalkeeping prowess was clearly evident at the recent­ Old Firm cup final .... perhaps he should keep his mind­ on football as opposed to drinking, his girlfriend and­ what else he can spend his exorbitant wages on !

    From ENSEMBLE D, on Wed 1 Apr 12:48PM

  10. i've played poker with McGregor, well, i played­ poker and he played omaha, played with his ex, dam was­ she hot....... McGregor is a chain smoking party­ animal, i think him and Boyd need to wise up, scotlands­ main problem is we dont have many professional players,­ in the sense of they are 100% focused on football, a­ man that can stay out all night drinking gambling and­ smoking should not be playing for scotland, its no real­ loss to the team anyway, we focus too much on Barry and­ like one of the previous comments said, he is just too­ slow these days. we'll still hump them­ tonight.......

    From Iain, on Wed 1 Apr 12:46PM

  11. Who cares if they are Celtic or Rangers players, they­ are Scotland players there chosen league teams do not­ count when its for the Country just shows how small­ minded people are, if Ferguson scored for Scotland­ should the goal be dissalowed i dont think so, as for­ the comment about Rangers players having a drink­ problem well there has been a few from Celtic and other­ Scottish teams who have had bad press in the past for­ drink related incidents. Stop slagging the players off­ and get behind the Country.

    From tracy e, on Wed 1 Apr 12:44PM

  12. I rate McGregor and did rate Ferguson until his spell­ in England... he is just a shadow of what he used to­ be... he never had real flat out pace but his skill and­ hunger made up for this but it just seems to me­ it's all gone.

    From stevoc1968, on Wed 1 Apr 12:41PM

  13. they broke the rules and deserved to be punished,but­ there are other ways to do this,I dont think we have­ such a wealth of talent,that we can afford to drop­ them,is it not strange that he had a dilemna,due to a­ certain section of fans to drop McGregor in place of­ Gordon and drop Fergie as these said fans labelled him­ as a dud

    From THOMAS, on Wed 1 Apr 12:36PM

  14. Agree with Comments 26 & 27... they know the­ score!!!

    BTW if Graham Alexander is playing after that­ performance against the Dutch then Burley needs to have­ a word with himself... I would have kicked him up and­ down the dressing room he was awful.

    From stevoc1968, on Wed 1 Apr 12:36PM

  15. BOSTURDS HOO DR THEY DRAP BARRAY. I OM BARRAY­­ FERGAYSONS BAGGAST FON A AVAN NEEMED MAY WEE DOOGIE­­ OFTAR EM. MAY WEE DOOGIES CALED BARRIE BAY THA WAY. GO­­ RANGARS. FACK CALTAK.

    What language is this ? Is this­ doric or similar ?

    From alan k, on Wed 1 Apr 12:27PM

  16. Great news because Ferguson is useless anyway...­ whether he likes it or not, he's just too slow now!

    From stevoc1968, on Wed 1 Apr 12:26PM

  17. Gary S not a Celtic fan LOL LOL

    From jamie f, on Wed 1 Apr 12:24PM

  18. comment 25...well you clearly just hate rangers then,­ so banning all rangers players will help this matter?­ what kind of passion is that showing? just stupidity.

    From gregmacintyre, on Wed 1 Apr 12:23PM

  19. If you break the rules,in whatever sport,then you­ should be out,no questions asked,I don't like­ Burley,but he and the SFA decide what the rules are and­ if you can't accept them,then,don't play for­ Scotland,what is the problem?

    From geoff b, on Wed 1 Apr 12:23PM

  20. What is it with Rangers players that they cannot stay­ away from the drink. Ferguson should know better, they­ both deserved to be dropped and should be fined by the­ SFA andby Rangers for misconduct. But no doubt the­ Rangers management will bring them back for a wee dram­ and a chat and then forget about it. Well done Burley.

    From Allen H, on Wed 1 Apr 12:19PM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account