World Cup News
How Scotland reached the World Cup - told by those who made it happen
How Scotland reached the World Cup - told by those who made it happenBBC Scotland's chief sports writerIn the two minutes between 21:48 and 21:50 GMT on Tuesday, 18 November last year, the Glasgow Geothermal Observatory, stationed in Dalmarnock in the east of the city, picked up some seismic activity just over a mile away at Hampden Park.The noise, they noted, was akin to an extremely small earthquake - because between 21:48 and 21:50 on that Tuesday, Kenny McLean launched a shot 50 yards through the night sky and into the back of Kasper Schmeichel's net to seal Scotland's place at the men's World Cup this summer, their first since France 1998.After a wait of nearly 30 years, McLean's dig for the ages took 3.38 seconds from boot to net. It was the final kick of the most extraordinary evening.Goals that will go down in legend. Drama that will surely never be surpassed. Emotion that didn't just reverberate around Scotland, but the world.In the aftermath, head coach Steve Clarke said he could "smell magic" at Hampden and he was right.There was something celestial about what went on, something pre-ordained, perhaps. A higher football power, higher even than Scott McTominay's boot when scoring the opener in the most gobsmacking way."So much optimism after a loss. It was like nothing made sense any more."This wasn't just a story that began and ended on that Tuesday night. It had been unfolding for months and had the most brilliant endgame.In the last days of Scotland's epic bid for automatic World Cup qualification things seemed to take a potentially fatal twist in Piraeus, the main seaport of Athens.With Denmark hosting group whipping boys Belarus in Copenhagen, Scotland had to avoid defeat that Saturday night in order to set up a winner-takes-all game at Hampden a few days later. That's what we thought.Ryan Christie remembers it like the weirdest dream of his life."It was such a bizarre feeling," says the Scotland midfielder. "You go into it thinking it's win or draw or bust, basically. Then you find yourself 3-0 down. You're thinking 'we've really messed up the chance, haven't we?'"At 3-0, in the dugout, Clarke's assistant Steven Naismith was having certain thoughts. "My mind started flipping to 'Right, we're going to be in the play-offs. The automatic thing is done'."I started thinking about the bookings situation. It might be better if somebody gets booked to miss the Denmark game. Then the word comes from Copenhagen. Belarus are winning, then drawing, then winning, then drawing."Those plans about the bookings are out the window because we're still in this. It could have been the end - and it wasn't."The game had ended in Greece - a 3-2 home win - but there were still anxious moments left in Copenhagen."When I came off, the kitman nudged me and said it's 2-2 in the other game," said Christie. "I thought 'oh my god'."Denmark needed one goal to guarantee automatic qualification and send Scotland to the purgatory of the play-offs - and they were pummelling Belarus in pursuit of it.The Danes had 35 attempts on goal in the 90 minutes. They beat Belarus 6-0 the previous month, but couldn't find a winner.Midfielder Lewis Ferguson says it was the strangest feeling. "So much optimism after a loss. It was like nothing made sense any more. We got out of jail.""You feel like you've done your job even though you haven't," adds Christie."We got away with it," says defender Grant Hanley. "It's hard to put into words how we were feeling, but we were still alive. We were happy."We were going back to Hampden to play Denmark in front of our fans for a place at the World Cup.""I spent about three hours that Tuesday afternoon just rolling around my bed, just staring at the ceiling. I didn't get much sleep."Andy Robertson has spoken powerfully about what he was thinking in the early afternoon of the Denmark game in Glasgow.Thoughts of his Liverpool team-mate and friend, Diogo Jota, filled his head, the striker having died in a car crash in July at the age of 28.The players had a few hours of their own - to sleep, to dream, to shut down all thoughts of what was to come or to think of how they got to this point.Christie was one of those. He hoped to get some rest but it never came."When I was first capped in 2017, you'd arrive on night one of a camp and think 'oh my god, there's nine more nights of this'. But now it's how quickly can I get up the road to see all the boys," he says."On matchday, nerves definitely hit me a lot earlier than usual. I spent about three hours just rolling around my bed, staring at the ceiling. I didn't get much sleep. But a few of the other boys said the same, which made me feel better."As the clock started to tick towards departure time for Hampden, Clarke did his run-throughs at the team meeting. Having dealt with the minutiae of the tactical approach he switched and started to deal with the emotion of the day."It was just a clear timeline of where we were, how we've got here and the bad feelings you've had, but also the elation you've had," recalls Christie."He turned off the screen, took out a flip chart and talked us through the journey this set of players had been on from the night in Serbia when we qualified for the Euros, to Hampden when we lost to Ukraine in the World Cup play-offs."Basically, this was the last piece of the puzzle. When he was finished, a lot of boys jumped off their seats and were ready to go to war."The team had been named the night before. Lawrence Shankland wasn't in it, but he was ready. "Everybody left the room with a real feeling that we could do it. I just had a feeling I'd get a goal. I had a sense I'd have a part to play."After the loss against Greece it was as if we'd got a wee bit of a second chance. I felt a wee bit of freedom among the boys. And it was a good feeling.""The self-doubt and the knocks to your confidence, those were the hardest things I've had to go through in my career."In the warm-up at Hampden, John Souttar succumbed to injury. Having started against Greece but been named as a substitute for Denmark, Hanley was back in.Hanley has had a tempestuous international career, parts of it playing out against a negative backdrop from the Tartan Army. The Hibs centre-back is a Clarke favourite, though. The manager admires his resilience and his simple love of defending.Things had been tough for Hanley. Only when he opens up do you realise how tough."I had an injury that, at certain stages, I wasn't sure I was going to get back from," he says. "Then coming back and being nowhere near the level I wanted to be, you're asking yourself questions about the future."Getting up first thing in the morning and going running on your own, you're thinking to yourself 'Is this all going to be worth it?' The self-doubt and the knocks to your confidence, those were the hardest things I've had to go through."Going through rehab, then trying to get back in the Norwich team, and then going to Birmingham and not really playing much. All that time, the manager kept giving me opportunities and I'll be forever grateful."Emotion is a tricky thing. On the night, the players needed some, but not too much. "I'm so bad for getting emotional," says Christie. "If I was to catch eyes with my mum in the stand I'd be a mess, so I just stared into space."A funny thing. I played with Phil Billing at Bournemouth and he was on the bench for Denmark. I didn't get a chance to speak to him before but I wanted to say to him, 'Listen, get ready for this anthem [Flower of Scotland] because it'll be like nothing you've ever heard before'."I managed to look at him while the anthem was going and his jaw was on the floor. That's a funny memory that sticks with me.""It's Gannon-Doak picking it up on the right-hand side of the box. Little step-over. In it comes. McTominay! Scott McTominay with the most outrageous overhead kick you will ever see!"Alasdair Lamont, commentating on BBC Radio Scotland, third minuteWhen he kickstarted the bedlam with a goal of balletic brilliance, McTominay entered the history books.At peak height, the golden boot of Italy's player of the year was 2.53m off the ground - a new record, beating Paul Onuachu of Genk (2.41m) against Antwerp in 2020 and Cristiano Ronaldo (2.38m) for Real Madrid against Juventus in 2018.Hang it in the Louvre, they said. Not quite.But the image of McTominay, mid-air and glorious, did hang in the Great Hall of the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh until early January and has since been painted on the gable end of a building next to Hampden."As soon as I saw Scotty starting to jump, I was thinking 'don't be so ridiculous'," says Christie."It was outrageous," says Ferguson. "I don't think people realise how difficult it is for such a big guy to get up that high and still manage to have the technique and the quality to guide it. It's just sensational."Nine days earlier, Ferguson's Bologna had hosted McTominay's Napoli in Serie A, Bologna winning 2-0. They travelled together to Milan that evening, then caught a connecting flight to Antalya in Turkey where Scotland were having a training camp.Like giddy schoolboys, they couldn't wait to get there, says Ferguson. And when they did, McTominay was his usual brilliant self in camp."The way he can cover the ground is elite. He can just glide across the pitch with elegance," says Naismith. "It's like in Super Mario where you get a mushroom and you're bigger, if that makes sense. And he's become a brilliant leader."He's a brilliant guy. He'll hang about with the youngest players in the squad at dinner and chat away to them. I don't actually think he knows the value that gives to the younger players because he treats them all just the exact same."Then the next day he could be sitting with McGinn and Robbo and Kenny McLean and Grant and being part of that. And then he might just be by himself for a bit. He's a social butterfly. He's different. He's just different."Patient, precise, clinical - are Scotland ready to make World Cup mark?Liam McLeod, commentating on BBC television, 57th minute"When Andy made the tackle I thought 'I don't think he got much of the ball there' but I hoped we'd just get away with it," says Christie. "I thought it was maybe outside the box, then it goes to VAR."When you're on the pitch you can look over to your bench, who've got an iPad to replay it, but nobody was giving us anything positive, so I thought that's a bad sign."Christie's view is Denmark deserved a goal at that stage and Ferguson agrees. "We knew there were going to be periods where they would dominate. But they weren't cutting through us. We weren't massively concerned."Not everyone was as chilled. Hanley, for one."Maybe it's a defender's mentality, but you're sort of always fearing the worst at all times," says Hanley."I was up against Hojlund and I couldn't believe the size of him. Honestly, he's a monster. We had to stay really focused to deal with him.""Can Ferguson be on point here? Comes all the way…Shankland! And that could be the moment of history for this group of players. Lawrence Shankland off the bench!"Liam McLeod, commentating on BBC television, 78th minuteNot only were Scotland ahead again, they were now playing against 10 men, Rasmus Kristensen having been shown a second yellow - somewhat harshly - 16 minutes before Shankland's goal."Shanks actually said to me that it was going in from the corner," says Ferguson of his delivery. "We worked on it the day before - that low cross to the front post. I was aiming to hit the goalkeeper. Shanks probably had the easiest goal of his life."And so the striker's hunch proved correct - he did have a role to play."My position for the corner was to be around the goalkeeper, but I was quite surprised at how unmarked I was. I did say to Fergie that it was probably going in, but it's not my job to take risks. I need to make sure. It was pretty surreal."Jubilation was quickly followed by concern. Naismith wasn't liking what he was seeing in the immediate aftermath of Scotland going 2-1 ahead."We've got one foot in the World Cup, but we were terrible in possession," he recalls. "We didn't play with that freedom of having an extra man."Everything is happening so fast that nobody could get that corrected. And for a good couple of minutes, Denmark just kept the ball."We were not getting near them. You can just see that they're turning the dial a wee bit. We were killing ourselves.""Still not clear…Dorgu! Goal! Oh my goodness me. Denmark are level again!"Alasdair Lamont, commentating on BBC Radio Scotland, 81st minuteWhen Shankland scored, that defender's mindset took hold of Hanley again.He was thrilled, of course, but he also had a nagging worry Scotland had scored too soon. Twelve minutes of normal time left - too soon?"Aye, you can ask the boys," he says. "But I also remember standing ready to take kick-off at 2-2 and honestly believing that we'd score again."When Patrick Dorgu levelled there was a scene of devastation in the Scotland box. Ferguson said he felt the energy being sucked out of him. Shankland felt sick."You just feel like 'oh my god, this is not going to be our day'," says Ferguson. "You feel like that for maybe five, 10 seconds, and then you switch on again."A lot of teams, a lot of players, when they get hit with that sort of sucker punch, might crumble. But there's something special about this team, so after those few seconds you're like 'there's time left, we've got good players, we'll create chances'."Shankland got over his sickness in double-quick time. "I just felt we were going to get another one. Denmark played really well but being down to 10, I thought they were going to try and protect the draw and that would suit us.""McLean - in it comes. Ferguson's header, given away, but it breaks to… Tierney! History! History for Scotland and Kieran Tierney is the hero with an absolute piledriver. Surely that's it done now!"Liam McLeod, commentating on BBC television, 93rd minuteA few moments before the Celtic left-back - playing on the right since his introduction in the 72nd minute - scored the second wonder goal of the night, Hanley was feeling sheepish."People might not remember it, but just before KT's goal, I'm in their box and John McGinn hits one sweet and I'm trying to get out of the way but it hits me on the arse. It's one of my clearest memories - that ball was flying in the top corner."Ferguson says there was an unspoken feeling among the Scotland players that something was going to happen."I was trying to get in the box for anything dropping," he recalls. "Then the ball just bounces out and comes off my head, the Danish player tries to clear it, and it just fell to KT."I felt like time stopped when the ball was rolling towards him. It felt like the whole place went silent. He just struck it magnificently. As soon as it hit the back of the net - the noise!"For it to be Tierney to make it 3-2 just added another chapter to the fairytale. He was in the foothills of another recovery from yet another injury, the story of his life in recent years."He's had it tough," says Naismith. "He's suffered. You're feeling terrible at times and then that brings an insecurity. He's had to work through that whole thing."Watching him in training at the start of qualification, I'm thinking 'he's not the normal KT'. And I actually had a couple of conversations where I'm saying 'there's no quick fix here, you just need to grind it out'."The biggest memory I have of Kieran at the start of his international career is of him running on to the training pitch and blasting balls into the net, pure smashing it - and that's exactly what he did against Denmark."Shankland says he had the perfect view. "I could tell right away that Schmeichel wasn't getting there. What a feeling. It felt better than my goal, to be honest. I was more excited for KT than I was for myself."Now it's all about the full-time whistle. "The ref blows and we're there, but he doesn't blow the whistle," says Naismith. "He doesn't blow the whistle! Why is he not blowing the whistle?!"I'm concentrating on the ref and the fourth official and not really caring what Kenny's doing with the ball.""It's McLean, looking to go for goal! From the halfway line! Goooallll! Glorious! Glorious! Kenny McLean from the halfway line!"Alasdair Lamont, commentating on BBC Radio Scotland, 98th minuteThe last act of possibly the most exhilarating night in the history of the national team fell to McLean. When the ball came to him in his own half he took it for a little spin, unsure of what to do with it."I didn't initially think about the shot," he says. "I take a few touches and see support arriving either side and I'm aware the game's going to finish, whether I pass it or not."I was looking around to see if I had any pressure on me, to see if I had time. And I heard some noise from the crowd that sounded like 'shoot!'. It was the crowd that first put the idea in my head. And, obviously, I took them up on the offer."I hit it and it felt like slow motion after that. It felt like everybody went quiet. The ball started half a yard outside the post, but then it started turning. The goalie was in a bit of trouble. It cleared him and it was inside the post. It bounced and went in and that's when I started running."It was bedlam after that. Absolute chaos. I still get goosebumps thinking about it."Ferguson recalls the moment the ball found the target. "The relief and euphoria that goes through you - the place erupted, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I had nothing left in the tank but then we all just sprinted about 100 yards into the corner chasing after Kenny. Pure adrenaline. It was like a dream."The party carried on and on, everybody with a story to tell, everybody euphoric that the older members of the squad would now have their crowning glory of playing in a World Cup.Craig Gordon, at 43, will become the second-oldest player in history to appear on the biggest stage should he make an appearance in this summer's showpiece.He's been on the road as a Scotland player for a staggering 22 years. Hanley won his first cap 15 years ago. Robertson made his debut a dozen years ago. For McGinn and McLean, it's been a decade.For Clarke, it's been a whole lot longer. He's never made any secret of his dream of leading Scotland to a World Cup and with this group of players he's now done it.As the celebrations roared on, Naismith had cause to remember how it was in his day as a Scotland player - 51 caps over 12 years. He speaks about the bond between the current squad and how times have changed."The boys now can't wait to meet up," he says. "We lacked that in my career, that togetherness. There was a bit of self-interest, I think. If a player didn't start the first game in a campaign and you were going away to, say, Macedonia in the midweek - 'oh, I'm injured, I'm not going'. There was too much of that. Not now."The final words to McLean, mayor of Norwich and now king of Scotland."Every player says it - and a lot of the time it's said for the sake of it - but we really are like a club side, we're like a family. Honestly, the connection between these boys is like nothing I've ever been involved in. No cliques. Everybody as one."If you can be a good team-mate then it goes a long way. That's what I'd always want people to say about me and I'd say it about all of those boys. They have fantastic ability but above all they're brilliant team-mates and brilliant people."
BBC Sport WCSun, 07 Jun 2026
Source: BBC Sport WC
