Scotland wins narrowly, but poor performance makes you anxious ahead of the World Cup!

Gilabola.com – Scotland is getting closer to the 2026 World Cup stage, but in reality this victory feels more like a wake-up call than a celebration. Even though they managed to beat Belarus by a narrow score, their performance at Hampden Park left the fans shaking their heads and the coach, Steve Clarke, was filled with more questions than answers.

Unconvincing Victory

This match should be Scotland’s opportunity to appear convincing in front of their own supporters. But what happened was just the opposite—their game looked heavy, stiff, and without excitement.

The fans became even more furious in the second half, until Scott McTominay’s late goal finally calmed the nerves a little. Ironically, the player almost didn’t even celebrate his goal. That was enough to describe the overall mood of the team.

The final score of 2-1 may have looked good on paper, but it was Belarus who scored the final goal through Hleb Kuchko after rounding Andy Robertson and beating Angus Gunn.

If you look at the course of the match, Scotland actually seems to be having difficulty facing a team whose ranking and quality are far below them.

VAR Drama and Decisive Goals

Belarus actually equalized in the 63rd minute through Evgeni Malashevich. However, the referee, after reviewing via VAR, decided that McTominay had been fouled before the goal was scored.

Previously, technology also canceled a penalty opportunity for Scotland because Che Adams was deemed to have touched the ball with his hand. Ironically, a similar foul by Yegor Parkhomenko was also overturned.

The result? There were no penalties for anyone, and Scotland had to rely on the referee’s decisions to survive Belarus’ pressure.

Even though the match started quite well for the hosts. Only 15 minutes had passed, Adams opened the scoring after receiving a through ball from Jack Hendry and firing a hard left-footed shot. The offside check was passed smoothly. But after that, their game actually dropped drastically.

John McGinn and Ben Gannon-Doak only created a couple of half chances, nothing more. Belarus, who had just been beaten by six goals by Denmark, started to gain confidence and almost equalized the score. They even made Scotland fans nervous.

Mctominay breathed a sigh of relief

When tensions began to rise, McTominay finally became the savior. Aleksandr Martynovich couldn’t anticipate Robertson’s cross, and McTominay managed to beat Fedor Lapoukhov to put Scotland 2-0 up.

But that wasn’t enough to make the match end comfortably. Kuchko scored a consolation goal in stoppage time, embarrassing Scotland’s off-guard backline.

With a performance like this, it is natural that many doubt Scotland’s ability to compete on the world stage. Clarke certainly has a big job to do to improve his team before the two decisive Group C matches which will determine their fate heading into the World Cup.