ECQ: Scotland off to a winning start
Scotland 3 - 0 Cyprus
A late double from Scott McTominay secured Scotland a comfortable winning start to their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign at home to Cyprus.
John McGinn's close-range finish was a reward for a dominant first-half display. Substitute McTominay then eased increased nervousness around Hampden Park with a clinical 87th-minute finish. The Manchester United midfielder added his second moments later.
Steve Clarke had billed it as a must-win game against Group A's lowest seeds and it was job done in that sense. However, despite their first winning start to a Euros qualifying campaign since 2006, they know that improvement will be needed as Spain visit on Tuesday.
Yes, sir, I can boogie
The dawn of a new qualifying campaign brought the Tartan Army to Hampden Park full of optimism. The atmosphere was amazing at times and brought back memories of some other incredible nights in Glasgow. Check out this video below.
What are the fans saying?
Darren McThomas has been watching Scotland for 35 years. He was happy with the performance but also believed there was room for improvement at times: "The scoreline addsd significant and welcome gloss to the occasion. I am delighted with that but equally happy to get through this unscathed. It did become something of a struggle until very late on, but the players stayed calm and avoided a calamity."
Peter Thomas had a similar view to Darren. He added: "Not going to learn too much from a home game against Cyprus, although they were decent opponents. The match against Spain will be a better indicator of how things might go in the group."
Sundays are always better after a win 🙌 pic.twitter.com/7U81l7Ad26
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) March 26, 2023
Jamie messaged us this on Facebook: "Two well-taken chances from McTominay. I have seen too many close-to-goal changes blasted wide by recognised strikers. It's nice to see a midfielder keeping his head and putting the ball in the net. The lad from Old Trafford will play a huge part for us in this campaign."
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