Hampden Park has hosted seismic occasions in a storied history dating back to 1903. Add this one to the list. Scotland’s long, long wait is over. You yearn for almost three decades to return to the World Cup and do so with an overhead kick, a 22-yard stunner and a goal from the halfway line.
Steve Clarke, Andy Robertson, Scott McTominay, John McGinn; you shall go to the ball. So too Kieran Tierney, whose magnificent strike in stoppage time would have made all the headlines before Kenny McLean notched Scotland’s fourth. McLean broke forward, spotted Kasper Schmeichel in a state of desperation, and floated the ball over him. McLean was in the middle of the pitch when he shot. Cue bedlam. Cue wonderful bedlam.
So many years of frustration, when Scotland have peered towards men’s World Cups from afar, were obliterated as the 10 men of Denmark fell to a defeat that felt unlikely for so long. Grown men in kilts shed tears. Denmark’s participation in next summer’s jamboree depends on playoffs next March. Clarke can start making plans, once he recovers from leading the celebrations here.
PhD students could produce work on how on earth Scotland achieved this qualification. They appeared down and out at times, including on Saturday when they lost in Athens. It was almost as if someone, somewhere had decided the Scots had suffered for long enough. Tierney’s intervention was an extraordinary one. McLean’s? Something else. Clarke has become the first manager in history to guide Scotland to three tournaments.
