Croatia v Scotland: Nations League – live | Nations League

HALF TIME: Croatia 1-1 Scotland

45 min: There will be one additional minute.

44 min: A cute flick from Gilmour sends Scotland on the attack. Doak’s cross from the right evades Dykes. Scotland continue to go forward without fear.

43 min: The tempo drops a bit, both teams perhaps dreaming of their half-time cuppa.

41 min: Robertson, having just forced a corner, has to concede one at the other end under pressure from Perišić. Susa takes it short, Croatia over-elaborate, and eventually the flag goes up for offside.

40 min: Robertson hoicks a diagonal free kick towards the far stick, forcing Pašalić to turn the ball behind for a corner with McTominay lurking. Sadly nothing comes of the resulting set piece, but this is a decent response from Scotland to the disappointment of giving up their lead so quickly.

39 min: McLean makes good down the inside-left channel and is cynically hauled back by Perišić, who goes into the book. A free kick just outside the box, on its left-hand edge.

38 min: Doak continues to make a nuisance of himself down the right. He looks a proper player. Good news for Middlesbrough and Liverpool, but especially Scotland, who really need someone who can provide that extra sparkle.

GOAL! Croatia 1-1 Scotland (Matanović 36)

35 min: Uefa have decided that’s an own goal by Ćaleta-Car. Nah. Had the defender not attempted his clearance, Christie’s shot was going in anyway.

GOAL! Croatia 0-1 Scotland (Christie 33)

31 min: Kramarić cuts in from the left but his rising shot is parried confidently by Gordon. Perišić then crosses from the other flank, Sosa heading wide left. Better from Croatia, who have suddenly moved up a gear.

30 min: McLean nearly releases Doak down the middle, but the winger can’t combine with Dykes and the hosts clear their lines. The Tartan Army cry foul, but the referee isn’t interested.

28 min: Scotland look comfortable enough right now. Croatia perhaps mindful of Robert Snodgrass’s winner 11 years ago?

26 min: Sučić crosses deep from the right. At the far stick, Sosa prepares to head goalwards from six yards, but Ralston gets in the way. A brave header that doesn’t even come at the cost of a corner, because Sosa is penalised for getting too heavy.

24 min: Christie whips a cross in from the left. Dykes is this close to meeting it with his head, six yards out. Gvardiol eased the striker away from the ball there, a gentle lean from behind.

23 min: Kramarić has another try from the edge of the D. This time he gets a shot away, but Souttar blocks bravely. Scotland still boast the only shot on target, the aforementioned Gilmour lash.

22 min: Modrić jinks his way down the right and gets the better of Robertson, but his dinked cross is headed away firmly by Hanley. Kramarić tries to make space to shoot, buy Dykes gets back to take the ball off his toe. Staunch defence.

21 min: Gilmour has a dig from 25 yards. His shot moves around in the air, but unfortunately for Scotland, in the general direction of Livaković, who claims easily.

20 min: Some admin: the freshly booked Mario Pašalić will henceforth be known simply as Pašalić, unless his namesake Marco comes off the bench, in which case everything changes.

18 min: Doak brings the ball out of defence with confidence, and is scythed down by Mario Pašalić, who hangs out a leg and sends the young man high into the air. The Croatian goes into the book.

17 min: Scotland are beginning to settle in this game. They put a few passes together. They go nowhere in particular, but that’s not really the point, and the away fans continue to give it laldie.

15 min: The Croatian keeper Livaković shanks a simple clearance high into the air, and is extremely fortunate neither Dykes nor McTominay are able to bring it down on the edge of the box and shoot. A shame for Scotland that the shank didn’t drop more kindly.

14 min: Robertson goes on another power run down the left but there’s nobody free in the middle. He’s forced to put the brakes on. A couple of promising breaks by the Scotland captain already.

13 min: It’s been a fairly lively start, and so the match settles down a little. “In a surprising development, this match is actually being shown on Fox’s main sports channel here in the States. If I had to give a one word description for Scotland’s kit, I’d go with ‘white’. Beyond that, I’d say the trim and numbers are periwinkle?” Joe Pearson there, publicly pitching for a job in the Adidas marketing department.

11 min: Doak steals a ball in midfield and goes tearing off down the right. He cuts back looking for Christie, but Modrić has read the danger and gets back to intercept.

10 min: Robertson has a dig from the best part of 35 yards. Full marks for ambition, and he nearly gets a bonus point by taking out the right-hand corner flag.

9 min: Modrić shapes to shoot, but Sučić has a go instead, blootering a witless effort straight into the wall. It clips off a blue shirt and out for a goal kick. Modrić will take the next one, you can bet large on that.

8 min: Matanović advances down the inside-right channel. He’s crudely brought to ground by Hanley, who is booked for his trouble. A free kick just to the right of the D. Modrić’s eyes light up.

7 min: This is better from Scotland. Robertson tears down the left touchline. His low cross is only hacked half-clear by Gvardiol, and the ball’s returned instantly by Christie, whose drive whistles inches wide of the left-hand post.

6 min: Scotland can’t keep hold of the ball at all. Dykes tries to get hold of it but only manages to skittle Ćaleta-Car.

4 min: Sosa crosses from the left. The ball breaks to Kramarić on the edge of the Scotland D. He doesn’t catch his shot well. The ball pings off Robertson and away from danger. A strong start by the hosts, though.

3 min: Pašalić is seeing a lot of the ball early doors. He feeds Perišić three times in a row, in short order, though the Croatian winger can’t fashion a decent cross. Gordon claims the third.

2 min: Croatia stroke it around to establish whose home this is.

Scotland kick off. There’s not much of an atmosphere in the Stadion Maksimir, with one of the main stands out of commission. But the away fans are doing their best.

The teams are out! Croatia are playing in their second-choice dark blue kit today … still with a check pattern, naturally … while Scotland wear their [squints, tilts documents towards light, moves glasses down nose, double-takes] Almost Blue (i.e. not blue) change strip. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!

Steve Clarke speaks to BBC Radio Scotland. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a win, so it’d be nice to get one here … obviously a difficult match but one we look forward to … if we didn’t think we could compete we would have stayed at home … we compete for a win or at least a point on the board … the injuries are there for everyone to see … there is no point harping on about it … I don’t think we’ve gone backwards.”

Croatia aren’t on the best of runs. That aforementioned win over Poland was their first in five matches, before which draws at home with Italy and Albania were sandwiched by defeats to Spain and Portugal.

However that’s all wine and roses compared to the miserable run Scotland are on. Steve Clarke’s side have won just one of their last 14 matches, and that an extremely unconvincing 2-0 win in Gibraltar. Nine of the other 13 games have been lost, several comprehensively so: 1-3 v England, 1-4 v France, 0-4 v Netherlands, 1-5 v Germany. The 0-1 loss to Northern Ireland wasn’t much better, though to be fair a 0-2 defeat in Spain might have turned out rather differently had Scott McTominay not had an opening goal chalked off for bugger all.

Also, the Scots remain the last team to beat the new European champions in a competitive fixture, so yes sir, on a good day they can indeed boogie. Weird that before the team embarked on this sorry run, they’d won eight of their previous ten. That’s the Scottish national team distilled into the purest tincture.

Croatia make three changes to the side that won 1-0 against Poland last time round. Mario Pašalić, Ivan Perišić and Andrej Kramarić – the latter two World Cup finalists – replace Marko Pjaca and Bruno Petković, who drop to the bench, and Mateo Kovačić, absent with baby on the way. Luka Modrić, the third member of that famous 2018 side starting today, will win his 181st cap.

Here’s the story of Scotland’s Nations League campaign so far. It’s been A1 in name, if nothing else. Injury-time misery …

… was soon compounded by more late woe …

… and so the Group A1 table currently looks like this. Poland will host Portugal later this evening.

1. Portugal P2 W2 D0 L0 F4 A2 Pts 6

2. Croatia P2 W1 D0 L1 F2 A2 Pts 3

3. Poland P2 W1 D0 L1 F3 A3 Pts 3

4. Scotland P2 W0 D0 L2 F3 A5 Pts 0

Scotland make three changes to the team that started the 2-1 defeat in Portugal. Craig Gordon replaces Angus Gunn in goal, John Souttar steps in for Scott McKenna at the back, and the creative void left by the absence of John McGinn is filled by Ben Doak, making his first full start for his country. Ché Adams, who has scored three goals in Serie A for Torino this season, has to make do with a place on the bench; Steve Clarke sticks with Lyndon Dykes, who has yet to score his first goal for Birmingham City in League One.

The teams

Preamble