Scotland retain a chance of automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup despite a dramatic 3-2 defeat to Greece’s 10-men in Piraeus on Saturday.
Steve Clarke’s men fell short with a second-half fightback after a dismal opening 63 minutes as Tasos Bakasetas, Konstantinos Karetsas and Christos Tzolis scored the goals for Greece, who had already been knocked out of contention.
Bakasetas pounced on the rebound from Vangelis Pavlidis’ saved attempt to open the scoring in the seventh minute, with a suspect defending against John Souttar inviting the pressure.
Late in the first half, Scott McTominay hit the post, Che Adams headed wide and Ben Gannon-Doak was denied one-on-one by Odysseas Vlachodimos, although Scotland were arguably lucky to be only 1-0 down at the time.
And Greece broke free early in the second half, with teenager Karetsas finishing from Andrews Tetteh’s center in the 57th minute, before Craig Gordon failed to keep Tzolis’ effort out of reach six minutes later.
Gannon-Doak responded less than two minutes later to give Scotland hope, and the visitors were back within one in the 70th minute when Ryan Christie nodded home Andy Robertson’s cross.
Vlachodimos made a glorious save to deny McTominay an equalizer, and although Bakasetas was shown a second yellow card for Lewis Ferguson’s clattering, Greece held on.
The Scotland players then gathered in the center circle at full-time as they waited for news from Copenhagen, where Group C leaders Denmark were in action against lowly Belarus.
Denmark could not find a late winner in a 2-2 draw, meaning Scotland will automatically qualify if they beat Brian Riemer’s side at Hampden Park on Tuesday.
Tuesday evening, Hampden Park.
It all comes down to this. pic.twitter.com/jWQzqRDar8
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 15, 2025
Data Debrief: A game of two halves
Scotland traveled to Greece having failed to concede a single goal in four away games this year (three wins, one draw), representing the longest run of clean sheets on the road in their history (also four between 1925 and 1927).
However, they were mauled by a Greek team who finished the first half with 11 shots and 1.37 expected goals (xG), compared to Scotland’s five attempts and 0.8 xG.
The second half was a different matter, despite Greece scoring clear shortly after the break. Both teams had seven shots after the break, but Scotland led the xG battle by 1.39 to 0.51.
But ultimately Denmark’s draw against Belarus – who are ranked 103rd in the world and had lost their first four games in the group – was the story of the day, setting up Tuesday’s winner-take-all showdown.
#Greece #Scotland #Clarkes #side #retain #World #Cup #hopes #dramatic #loss #Soccer #News