Fortune favours battling Scotland in World Cup quest as they benefit from an Iwelumo moment

Fortune favoured the Scots at times. A VAR check took place after Ryan Christie’s equaliser on 64 minutes with the fear being that either Grant Hanley or Che Adams or maybe even both had strayed offside. A Greek ankle – an Achilles heel? – was deemed to have hurt the visitors by playing the Scots onside. This gave the hosts the boost they desperately needed to go and try to win the game after being second best for the preceding hour

It was notable that the first instinct of both Christie and Adams was to retrieve the ball from the back of the net. Win your home matches is the mantra. Scotland have slightly more straightforward assignment at Hampden this weekend against Belarus, who lost 6-0 to Denmark in Hungary.

At 1-1 – Kostas Tsimikas had given Greece a deserved shortly after the hour mark, before Christie replied two minutes later - Scotland still had to win this game. Lewis Ferguson put the Scots ahead when lashing in from close range with ten minutes left following Andy Robertson’s floated free-kick into the box. Substitute Lyndon Dykes then made the points safe while providing another possibly precious counter for goal difference purposes in time added on, having capitalised on a dreadful mistake from Greece goalkeeper Kostas Tzolakis.

What a turnaround. What a way to firmly trash the memory of the boos that had rumbled around Hampden at periods during the night. After Christie slammed in the equaliser, he had cupped his ear, as if to say ‘I can’t hear you now!’ It was probably aimed at the Greek fans, positioned in a corner behind that goal. But it might well have been directed at some Scotland fans, who were quick to express their unhappiness at what was going on on the pitch as the hosts again found Greece to be a handful.

For large parts of the match, it was a case of thinking it might have been better had the opposition not turned up, as memory happened 29 years ago to the day in Estonia. Like earlier this year, when they won 3-0 at Hampden, they toyed with Scotland at times. They aren’t going away either. Scotland now have a game of games in Athens next month although first attention must be fixed on Belarus. Christie, one of the successes here, will be absent through suspension on Sunday after picking up a booking, as will be Ferguson.

Greece will be kicking themselves. They were the better side for over an hour and ought to have gone ahead in the first couple of minutes. The chance seemed to catch striker Vangelis Pavlidis - or was it Chris Iwelumo in disguise? – by surprise.

Not since the Scotland striker suffered a mishap 17 years ago almost to the day at the same end of the ground has there been quite such a glaring Hampden miss. Pavlidis, in good form in Portugal with Benfica, took his eye off the ball as Tasos Bakasetas’ cross rolled towards him and the chance to put an almost immediate dampener on the atmosphere was gone although the Greeks did succeed in muting the Hampden volume for long spells.

It was a poignant night as well as a highly charged one, given what was at stake. A minute’s applause for Rod Petrie in the first home game since the former SFA president’s death took place before kick off while the Greek players had already posed with George Baldock’s No. 2 jersey a year to the day since the English-born international right back drowned in a swimming pool in Athens. There was some history in the air too with Clarke equalling Craig Brown’s record of 71 matches as Scotland manager. Typically, he elected not to mention it in his programme notes.

Scotland’s big step towards the World Cup

The only milestone he wishes to focus on at this stage is reaching a World Cup and this was a big step towards North America and Mexico next summer. All’s well that ends well but it looked like it had been shaping up to be a dire night.

A smattering of boos broke out as Scotland began playing sideways a little too often, and even backwards. The same response greeted Norwegian referee Espen Eskas’ half-time whistle. But with it still being goalless, Scotland were in a far better place than the last time the teams had met at Hampden in March, when they trailed 2-0 at the interval and 3-0 shortly afterwards.

As expected, the star of that night, teenager Konstantinos Karetsas, started in the bench following a bout of illness, only coming on as part of a triple substitution after the teams exchanged goals midway through the half. While he demonstrated his wiles following his introduction, forcing Angus Gunn into fingertip save in stoppage time with the score still 2-1, there are of course plenty of other Greek dangermen, including playmaker Christos Tzolis. He has already put Rangers to the sword this season.

Pavlidis was presented with another chance to deliver a repeat dose of early second half heartbreak for Scotland here but sent his header just over while under pressure from Grant Hanley.

It did not give home fans hope that the tide was about to turn. Neither did the sight of Giorgos Masouras slashing just wide after more good work from Tzolis.

The concern became almost palpable when Aaron Hickey was helped off the field after a long period of treatment. He was replaced by Anthony Ralston. Just as significantly, Gannon-Doak was withdrawn at the same time with Billy Gilmour, perhaps surprisingly left out of the starting XI, replacing him, with more booing discernible.

The unhappiness became more profound when Scotland almost immediately fell behind. While the goal might have been slightly scrappy, they could have had few complaints when Tsimikas pounced after John Souttar had blocked a shot. Mercifully, there were even fewer complaints from Scotland at the end.