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GOAL! Scotland 1-0 Slovenia (Christie, 30 mins)
We’ve had a shot on target now! A free-kick from the right is passed to Gannon-Doak, who chips a nice (slightly deflected) cross to the far post. Hendry heads into that post, McBurnie can’t quite get to the rebound, but Christie backheels it in from a yard!
8.15pm: We still await a first shot on target in Glasgow. We have had a first yellow card, though: Janza has been booked for a foul on Gannon-Doak, as booky a booking as you’ll ever see.
8.10pm: Tottenham’s Mathys Tel has completed a hat-trick for France’s Under-21s against their Swiss counterparts. The French are currently 5-1 up.
8.08pm: Croatia have a chance of a second! Simon passes to Laporte inside the area, and the defender’s poor control gives it straight to an attacker, who squares to Matanovic, who turns and scuffs a shot that Simon saves.
8.07pm: 20-year-old winger Kristiyan Balov has put Bulgaria ahead in Luxembourg.
8.05pm: San Marino are not having a great time in Tirana: 18 minutes in and they haven’t had anything that Uefa’s statisticians classify as an “attack” while Albania have had eight, turned them into seven shots and they’ve now converted one of those, Asllani with the goal.
GOAL! Croatia 1-0 Spain (Perisic, 17 mins)
Croatia take the lead, and it’s been coming! There’s a turnover in midfield which leads to a three-on-two break. Matanovic’s shot isn’t good enough to beat Unai Simon but it’s too good for him to hold it, and Perisic snaffles the rebound!
8pm: Goal-saving clearance from Scotland! Slovenia slice them open, Cerin’s shot beats Gunn, but it’s not very powerful and Hendry gets in the way.
7.59pm: Save! Unai Simon is called into action in Split, after Perisic’s left-wing cross picks out Stanislic, whose header was goalbound until Simon got in the way.
7.58pm: Slovenia have had the brighter start at Hampden Park, though they’ve done little with their handful of attacking opportunities. Scotland have just hacked a corner clear.
7.54pm: The night’s second goal comes in Chisinau, where David Strelec has given Slovakia a 1-0 lead against Moldova in the eighth minute.
7.51pm: I am attempting to watch both Scotland v Slovenia and Croatia v Spain, the issue being that both involve a team in white shirts, shorts and socks playing another in dark blue shirt, shorts and socks. Anyway, a Slovenian attack is curtailed because of a push.
7.48pm: Quite a nice move from the Scots end with McGinn having space to shoot from the edge of the area, but there was a defender in front of him and that’s what he hit.
GOAL! Belarus 1-0 Finland (Shumanski, 1 min)
I was just noting that Belarus were the first team to kick off when they became the first team to score. It has taken VAR twice as long to confirm the goal as Belarus took after kick-off to score it.
Peeeep! The first games have kicked off! They seem to be running a bit behind schedule in Scotland, mind.
Before kick-off, a presentation for Andy Robertson on the occasion of his 100th cap, with Steve Clarke, Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan on hand to give him a framed shirt.
Sebastien Pocognoli has a chat ahead of Scotland’s game against Slovenia:
It’s a good team. They play as a collective block. It will be a good opposition today and we need to be ready and at our best. We’re trying to rotate. We expect if we are good on the ball to play against a low block. We need some creative players to play in between the lines and Ryan [Christie] had a good camp so far.
Don’t mind me, I’m just engrossed in the hunt for evidence of guano deposits in the area around Alnmouth, which is how BBC2 is treating anyone who’s turned on early for the Scotland game.
Russia v Nigeria submits an early claim to the game-of-the-day award: Nigeria 1-0 up after 10 minutes, Russia 3-1 up after 54, Akor Adams with an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time, 3-3. Obviously I haven’t actually watched a single minute of the game and it might have been a terrifically dull six-goal non-thriller, but the scoreline reads very nicely.
Harry Kane is England’s starting line-up against Czechia, bringing him level with Peter Shilton on 125 caps for his country. Scott Murray is all over this one here:
Croatia v Spain teams
It’s Rodri v Modri(c) in midfield as Spain make five changes to the team that beat Czechia and Croatia make four to the team that flunked against England.
Croatia: Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Vuskovic, Gvardiol; Modric, Jakic; Vlasic, Kovacic, Perisic; Matanovic. Subs: Pandur, Kotarski, Pongracic, Beljo, Kramaric, Budimir, Mario Pasalic, Baturina, Sucic, Marco Pasalic, Sucic, Misic.
Spain: Unai Simon; Marc Pubill, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Alex Baena; Mikel Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Martinez, Huijsen, Le Normand, Fresneda, Merino, Munoz, Roberto Fernandez, Fermin Lopez, Pino, Fran Garcia, Zubimendi.
Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium)
Scotland v Slovenia teams
Jack Hendry and Ryan Christie come in, while Kieron Bowie drops to the bench and Scott McKenna is suspended:
Scotland: Gunn, Welsh, Hendry, Binks, Doak, McGinn, Ferguson, Gilmour, Robertson, Christie, McBurnie. Subs: Kelly, Bain, Hickey, Doig, Ure, Miller, McPake, Curtis, Graham, Bowie, Patterson, Montgomery.
Slovenia: Oblak, Brekalo, Bijol, Zec, Janza, Karnicnik, Cerin, Zabukovnik, Sturm, Matko, Vipotnik. Subs: Vidovsek, Vekic, Balkovec, Kuzmic, Urbancic, Lovric, Begic, Elsnik, Celar, Svetlin, Horvat, Drkusic.
Referee: Jose Maria Sanchez (Spain).
Spain can seal quarter-final qualification if they beat Croatia today (and if England don’t lose to the Czechs), a task that as England demonstrated over the weekend is probably within their capabilities. Here’s Luka Modric’s reaction to that defeat and hopes for tonight’s game:
Losing isn’t the problem, but the way we lost is. I hope the fans will cheer us on as always and that, after the match, they can judge how we played. That’s what we need, so we’re hoping for a positive reaction because what happened hurts us more than anyone.
Spain is the best team in the world. They’re the champions. I don’t know how Spain is going to interpret our defeat … [but] what happened isn’t typical for our team, we all know that. Against the best team in the world, we have to fix everything, be aggressive, and not give them too much space to find solutions.
Hello world!
The Nations League is reaching the stage when decisions are made – indeed one could be made tonight, with Spain on the verge of joining their Iberian cousins Portugal in the quarter-finals, just one win for them and a lack of defeat for England away. So check out the league tables here and peruse tonight’s fixtures below – all of them 7.45pm starts unless otherwise advertised – and let’s crack on.
League A, Group 3
Croatia v Spain
England v Czechia
League B, Group 1
Scotland v Slovenia
Switzerland v North Macedonia
League C, Group 1
Albania v San Marino
Belarus v Finland
League C, Group 3
Moldova v Slovakia
Kazakhstan v Faroe Islands was played earlier today and finished 2-2
League C, Group 4
Estonia v Iceland
Luxembourg v Bularia
Bonus international friendlies
Russia v Nigeria (5pm)
Algeria v Niger (6pm)
Jordan v Venezuela (6pm)
Still want more?
Today’s Football Daily is, in an unexpected twist, about military service in South Korea.
#Scotland #Slovenia #Croatia #Spain #Nations #League #football #live #Nations #League
