World Cup qual. - Scotland held by Norway

Eurosport - Sun, 12 Oct 12:41:00 2008

Scotland drew 0-0 with Norway in a World Cup Group 9 qualifier at Hampden Park, with Chris Iwelumo guilty of a staggering miss.

2008 Scotland-Norway Chris Iwelumo - 0

Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Iwelumo made his debut, aged 30, as a second-half substitute, and booked himself a place in DVD compilation hell with a truly remarkable blunder.

With 64 minutes on the clock, Gary Naysmith crossed low from the left past goalkeeper Jon Knudsen, finding Iwelumo completely unmarked three yards in front of an open goal.

It was the simplest finish imaginable, but somehow Iwelumo failed to set himself and sent the ball wide when such an outcome appeared mathematically impossible.

In truth, Iwelumo should have been given offside, having strayed beyond the last defender, but the linesman's flag stayed down and the goal would have counted.

Under-pressure manager George Burley had opted to play James McFadden as a lone striker, supported from the left and right by Shaun Maloney and James Morrison.

But the downside of his decision not to use a second man up front soon became apparent as McFadden found himself isolated.

The burly likes of Brede Hangeland and Jon Inge Hoiland ensured the Birmingham striker saw little of the ball.

As the home side toiled away, a boisterous Hampden Park crowd became anxious, with last month's defeat in Macedonia having already compromised their hopes of reaching South Africa in 2010.

Scotland's lack of speed in central defence was soon exposed. John Carew is renowned more for his imposing physique than his searing pace, yet time and again he outstripped David Weir and Gary Caldwell to creat opportunities for himself.

As early as the ninth minute he accelerated through the middle with worrying ease, only to be denied by a last-ditch tackle.

Just before the mid-point of the first half he tested goalkeeper Craig Gordon with a low drive from the left corner of the box. Gordon parried and Steffen Iversen blasted the follow-up over.

It took another impressive block to deny the Aston Villa striker on 40 minutes after he ran onto an intelligent knock-down from Fredrik Stromstad.

Although the central midfield trio of Darren Fletcher - captain in Barry Ferguson's absence - Scott Brown and Barry Robson ensured plenty of possession, Scottish chances were at a premium.

Their best chance of the opening period came seconds before the break when McFadden peeled away on the left side and curled a superb cross onto the head of Morrison, who headed over from close range at the far post.

The situation seemed to cry out for attacking reinforcements by Burley, but when Iwelumo came just before the hour, he replaced the deeply frustrated McFadden and Scotland persisted with their flawed 4-5-1.

Barry Robson almost immediately fired a first-time shot left-footed, but it was straight at Norwegian keeper Knudsen - another 30-something debutant.

Iwelumo has been on only eight minutes when his big moment arrived, but the ball somehow ended up in the crowd. It really was the stuff of nightmares.

His error seemed to galvanise the home side, who then enjoyed their best spell of the game, dominating possession and forcing Norway back.

Maloney saw a shot deflected wide after picking up an astute Iwelumo knock-down, then fired just wide from the edge of the box.

Then late nerves set in, as Steffen Iversen, Kjetil Waehler and Carew all went close to nicking a an away win - but a goalless draw was cruel enough for Scotland.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 87 - 106 of 126

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  1. Stevieg - Ok, go figure this. The country where football is played and watched most in the world? China. population 1.3 billion. Holland? 15million. Population is irrelevant, so dont talk cr@p. England are currently at the lowest point, and scotland are at their highest - and you're still behind us. Why not take an average of the rankings over the past ten years? I notive you only talk about rankings when its convienient to you. Im pretty sure you would have kept your mouth shut in 2005 when you were 88th, and england were 7th. The gap is widening again now anyway - you're 26th - compared to 14th. And england have confidence and self belief - thats why we have qualified for 5 out of the last 6 international tournaments. And we only missed out last year thanks to one freak hit and hope shot. Our records speak for themselves, so stop flogging a dead horse

    From MrSyrett, on Sun 12 Oct 2:32AM

  2. good goal line clearance by the new lad! he looked good but i couldn't understand why norway made him wear that silly blue jersey!!!! ha ha ha - good luck for the euro 2012 qualifiers jocks!!!!!

    From j.light79, on Sun 12 Oct 2:09AM

  3. There two very good qualities mate that every team need and which Scotland already have. Helps us punch above ourselves. The fact that untl last wk Scotland were place 16th in the world ranking and England 15th shows that. We have no right to be place so close to a country who has a population 10times the size and 1,000times the revenue in the national leauge. But due to those two little things called self belief and desire that I think ur squad are lacking ,prob because of the over the top wags there on, we are! Go figure

    From Stevieg, on Sun 12 Oct 1:54AM

  4. Stevieg - its called self belief and a desire to win. If you dont have that you end a third rate team who are their just to make up the numbers i.e. scotland, who can only pride themselves on having "the best fans in the world". Although Im not sure how a bunch of pissed up glaswegians slurring flower of scotland is any claim to that title

    From MrSyrett, on Sun 12 Oct 1:36AM

  5. Stephen mate, ur doing England justice! Keeping up te persona that ur all arrogant twats!! Ever country I visited or lived in never have good word to say about you lot and its clear to see why with muppets like U. Do urself and ur country a favour if u want to break this stigma, keep ur comments to urself and away post on ur own Glorious victory against Kasik-who instead of posting on our game! I just know ur tabloids will be chanting "We'll win this world cup fr sure" after that win as always happens. Thats the beauty of the world cup if we make it or not, watching ur country talk urself up for a great fall. Self praise is no praise England!

    From Stevieg, on Sun 12 Oct 1:15AM

  6. Jim baxter? So we're going back to 67 now are we. God you're pathetic. Once every 30 years you've got something to shout about - so @#$% what. Need you say more? Try saying something about the fact that you havent qualified for anything since 1998 - and you look like you've ballsed this campaign up already - looks like you'll have to try for euro 2012.

    From MrSyrett, on Sat 11 Oct 11:42PM

  7. england 2 scotland 3 Jim Baxter ripping the pish out of england.

    need i say more

    From P, on Sat 11 Oct 11:33PM

  8. what a load of pish .if english people want to comment on scottish football do it on your own site

    From ANDY C, on Sat 11 Oct 11:25PM

  9. Yes, a largely irrelevant victory, as you failed to qualify. Just like the two france victories that you havent stop going on about. Empty victories. Yes. you just chose that as an example. The only exmaple, unless you can you think of any other finals that scotland qualified and england didnt? Because we're spoilt for choice on that subject

    From MrSyrett, on Sat 11 Oct 10:54PM

  10. again mr mcdonut,will ye not be told. england beat scotland 2-0 at hampden park in a euro 2000 play off match you beat us 1-0 at wembley but the score over two legs was
    ? yes mr.mcdonut 2-1 toENGLAND, nowgo get yerself away te bed wee laddy with the ginger hid

    From stephen, on Sat 11 Oct 10:52PM

  11. Well, at this point I will note that the last time England played Scotland officially in 1999, Scotland Beat England. So no, I don't have to go back to 1978 to get "ammunition", I just chose that as an example.

    From Andrew M, on Sat 11 Oct 10:37PM

  12. Hahaha - oh you know its bad when the scots have to go back 30 years to the 1978 world cup for ammunition against the english. No one has mentioned 1966, nevertheless - if you cant shout about winning the world cup, what can you shout about. Its all a bit rich coming from country who's biggest achievement in world cup finals is a single goal by a man called archie, in a defeat by the dutch. Good teams can play badly and still win. Bad teams play badly and lose i.e. scotland.

    From MrSyrett, on Sat 11 Oct 10:22PM

  13. 2 words for any Englishman trying to slag the Scots
    Morris Dancing!!!!!!

    From craig.gilmour1@..., on Sat 11 Oct 10:17PM

  14. hmm, something has just crossed my mind, seeing as it happened recently- England having difficulty trying to beat Andorra(who are, currently, ranked 184th in the rankings), so you can't really talk about us getting beat by Small teams.

    From Andrew M, on Sat 11 Oct 10:13PM

  15. alan r, and andy mcdickhid 1978 scotland beat holland 3-2 but drew against iran and got battered 3-1 by erm,i think it was a little team called peru,and thus failed to qualify to the second round,again you stupid jock pie skirt wearers,admit that you are ashamed to be a red haired jock lol

    From stephen, on Sat 11 Oct 10:03PM

  16. Argentina 78? Oh aye, the Guffies weren't even there. Let's lay this to rest - johnnywilkinson and Stephen are cnuts - fact - and the Scots hate the English. FACT!

    From Alan R, on Sat 11 Oct 9:53PM

  17. ronnie m,respect mate spoken like a true englishman

    From stephen, on Sat 11 Oct 9:29PM

  18. So, your point is that beating us is as good as winning the world cup?

    We must be pretty amazing then.

    Considerng we've out-performed you in every EURO or WORLD championship I guess we are.

    Be proud of rare victories

    From Johnny W, on Sat 11 Oct 9:26PM

  19. you are all completely sad losers. rejoice in your diversity and stop dissing each other. as a scot i have to say our team is pish and burley has his head up his @#$% but i will support them forever. they may surprise me and qualify even yet. what england, france or anywhere else does is up to them and narrow minded zenophobes including scots should also stick their heads up burleys @#$%

    From ronnie m, on Sat 11 Oct 9:23PM

  20. hah, Andy McDonut is even worse than andrew mcDickhead. congrats on being terrible at insulting people.

    and as a matter of fact, I DO live in Glasgow and I don't seem to have my, uh, "Hid" kicked.

    From Andrew M, on Sat 11 Oct 9:22PM
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