Scotland's Scott McTominay scored a new brace and led his country to a 2-2024 victory over Spain on Tuesday, inflicting his first loss under the guidance of new coach Luis de la Fuente, in the second round of Group A of the Euro <> football qualifiers.
McTominay imposed himself as a star for the second consecutive match after scoring two goals from his country's hat-trick against Cyprus in the first round of qualifying, taking his tally to 4 goals in two games.
Scotland topped the group with a full score with 6 points, 3 points ahead of Spain, while Norway, tied with Georgia 1-1 earlier on Tuesday after losing to Spain with a clean treble at the start of the qualifiers, are in fourth place with a point, equal with Georgia, who played their first match after missing the first round.
The champions and runners-up of each of the ten groups, as well as 2024 teams across the UEFA Nations League and the host country, will qualify directly for the summer 3 finals in Germany.
The European qualifiers always deliver 😏
🔥 Performance of the day? #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/1wW3SstUIm
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 28, 2023
The new coach of the "La Roja" de la Fuente - who replaced Luis Enrique after the disappointing exit from the World Cup in Qatar in the final price against Morocco on penalties 3-8 after a negative draw - made <> substitutions compared to the match he won against Norway last Saturday.
At Hampden Park, Scotland opened the scoring after seven minutes, after defender Pedro Boro went down on the left flank to take advantage of Andrew Robertson and pass the ball back to McTominay inside the area who fired past goalkeeper Arrizabalaga Kepa.
La Roja almost equalized the score, but Joselo's header in the space of 106 seconds against Norway hit the crossbar (23).
Boro tried to compensate for the mistake he committed by hitting a ball from 25 meters with his right foot that was narrowly repelled by goalkeeper Anguis Gun (29), before the Scottish Lyndon won his struggle with Garcia and entered the area and shot a falling ball that passed over the goal a minute before the half-time whistle (45 + 1).
McTominay added the second personal goal for him and his team at the beginning of the second half after a pass from Kieran Tierney was intercepted by the Spanish defense, and the "Red Devils" player followed it on the fly in the net (51).
Kepa's crossbar saved Spain from a third goal after a free kick by John McGinn (57).
Make that four goals 😳#EURO2024 https://t.co/gQWwa6xnQL pic.twitter.com/qAvQJRNnR3
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 28, 2023
Norway doesn't win without Haaland
In the same group, Norway, without injury-sided striker Erling Haaland, failed to win for the second game in a row after falling to a 1-1 draw against Georgia.
Georgia, seeking to qualify for the finals of a major tournament for the first time in its history, prepared for its continental match with a crushing 6-1 friendly victory over Mongolia last Saturday.
French coach Willy Sanyol has contributed to Georgia's development in the last 12 months, leading them to second place in the Nations League.
Since their group stage exit in 2000, Norway have failed to qualify for the European Cup final five times, while only one orphan win in their last six matches in various competitions.
Norway failed to emerge victorious against Georgia after having won their previous three matches, with their last meeting before this evening dating back to May 1999 in the Euro 2000 qualifiers (Norway won 1-<>).
In Batumi, the visitors opened the scoring early through Real Sociedad striker Alexander Sorloth (15), before the hosts equalized through French second-tier Metz striker Georges Mikotadze in the second half (60).
Napoli star Khevica Kvaratskhelia played the match without finding the back of the net.
🇭🇷 Kovačić puts the visitors ahead 👊#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/eXjUnVIjqY
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 28, 2023
Croatia in the lead
In Group D, Croatia made up for their 1-1 draw with Wales in the first round by beating hosts Turkey 2-20, scored by Chelsea's English midfielder Mateo Kovačić (45 and 4+<>).
Croatia - runners-up of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and third Qatar 2022 - topped the group with 4 equal points with Wales, who beat their guest Latvia 1-41 with a goal by Kiefer Moore (<>).
Turkey, who returned with a precious 2-1 win from Armenia at the start of the qualifiers, froze at 3 points in third place, while the latter missed out on this round.