After 22 years of waiting, Scotland celebrates qualifying for the European Championship

This is how Scotland and their footballers emotionally celebrate their return to the big stage

22 years of waiting are finally over! Scotland qualified for the European Championship in the Nations League playoffs with a win after penalty kicks against Serbia and then returned to a major tournament for the first time since 1998. Next summer, coach Steve Clarke’s team he will face Croatia, the Czech Republic and England’s historical rivals in the European Championships.

It was a drama with a happy ending in Belgrade. Up to 90 ‘the “Bravehearts” were leading the Scottish Huddelwetter thanks to a goal by Celtic midfielder Ryan Christie with 1-0, but with the last action of regular time the Real forward Luka Jovic equalized for the Serbs surprisingly passive.

After the overtime goalless – as in the semifinal against Israel – penalties had to be decided. There, goalkeeper David Marshall of English second division club Derby County parried the Serbs’ fifth attempt after all the Scots had previously struck against Israel.

After the decisive parade all the dams broke. With tears of happiness in their eyes, the Scots lay in each other’s arms. Relief and satisfaction were written on their faces as they carried the weight of a proud football nation on their shoulders.

At home, the game was positively advertised as the “most important football game of the past 13 years”. Popular radio station Clyde 1, for example, ran one on its morning program Extremely emotional two-minute music video with the title: “Let’s all go together”, let’s all go together. The pay TV channel “Sky” also announced at short notice that it would make the game accessible for free so that all Scots could see it.

The post-match interview with scorer Ryan Christie shows how well the Scots qualify for the European Championship. In tears he answered the questions of the reporter from Sky after the match: «This is a wonderful day! Incredible! It was a year of horror for all Scots and we knew we could give something back to the country. We definitely deserve it because we’ve been through so much in recent years. Now the monkey is finally out of the sack! “

While the big party started later in the Scots cabin, there wasn’t a big party at home due to the crown pandemic. Only a few fans took to the streets to sing and dance.

All corrected for the last penalty

While the Scots cheered, the Serbs fought with fate and obviously with the last penalty, missed by the top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic. Scotland goalkeeper Marshall walked off the line early and was apparently not entirely sure after his save if he always had at least one foot on the line before the execution.

Marshall then glared at the referee and waited for his okay before he started cheering too. Meanwhile, the Serbs have complained that Marshall moved on too soon, but the repetition shows that the VAR rightly did not intervene. When Mitrovic gave the ball, the Scottish goalkeeper still had one foot on or over the line. So that’s all correct.

The Serbs, who have recently qualified for the World Cup four times in a row, have to wait for their second participation in the European Championship since 2000, when they were present as BR Yugoslavia.

Drama Islands in Ungarn

The other playoff games were also dramatic at times. Hungary converted a 0-1 to a 2-1 against Iceland in the final minutes. Frenchman Loic Nego (88th) and young Salzburg star Dominik Szoboszlai (92nd) scored the decisive goals in Budapest. The 2-1 came seconds after Hungary prevented a goal thanks to a defense on the goal line. For a long time the Hungarians had chased the deficit in vain. To provoke him in the 11th minute the goalkeeper Peter Gulasci with an error on a free kick by Gylfi Sigurdsson.

The Slovaks were also forced into extra time by a goal in the 88th minute of the Northern Irishman. An own goal by Inter Milan Skriniar brought hope to Belfast’s 1000 spectators. But the last word fell to the Slovaks, who had taken the lead for the first time in the 17th minute through Juraj Kucka after a good quarter of an hour. In the 110th minute, Michal Duris caught Northern Ireland goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell with a shot in the corner near the goal.

In the early evening, North Macedonia got the better of it thanks to a goal by veteran Goran Pandev in Georgia. The 37-year-old striker consolidates his extraordinary status at home with the historic goal: Pandev, who has played almost continuously in Italy for 19 years, is the record of the North Macedonia national team (114 games) and top scorer (36).

Almost 20 months after the first day of qualifying for the European Championship, all 24 participants in next summer’s finals have finally been determined. Here are the six groups of four at a glance:

(with material from Keystone-SDA news agency)