Scotland retain a chance of automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup despite falling to a dramatic 3-2 defeat to the 10 men of Greece in Piraeus on Saturday.
Steve Clarke’s men came up short with a second-half fightback following a dismal first 63 minutes as Tasos Bakasetas, Konstantinos Karetsas and Christos Tzolis got the goals for Greece, who had already been eliminated from contention.
Bakasetas pounced on the rebound of Vangelis Pavlidis’ saved attempt to open the scoring in the seventh minute, with some suspect defending from John Souttar inviting the pressure.
Late in the first half, Scott McTominay struck the post, Che Adams headed wide and Ben Gannon-Doak was denied one-v-one by Odysseas Vlachodimos, though Scotland were arguably fortunate to only be 1-0 down by that point.
And Greece pulled clear early in the second half, with teenager Karetsas finishing from Andrews Tetteh’s centre in the 57th minute, before Craig Gordon failed to keep out Tzolis’ effort from range six minutes later.
Gannon-Doak responded less than two minutes later to offer Scotland hope, and the visitors were back within one in the 70th minute as Ryan Christie nodded Andy Robertson’s cross home.
Vlachodimos made a glorious save to deny McTominay an equaliser, and though Bakasetas was shown a second yellow card for clattering Lewis Ferguson, Greece held out.
The Scotland players then gathered in the centre-circle at full-time as they awaited news from Copenhagen, where Group C leaders Denmark were in action against lowly Belarus.
Denmark were unable to find a late winner in a 2-2 draw, meaning Scotland will qualify automatically if they beat Brian Riemer’s team at Hampden Park on Tuesday.
Tuesday night, Hampden Park.
It all comes down to this. pic.twitter.com/jWQzqRDar8
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 15, 2025
Data Debrief: A game of two halves
Scotland travelled to Greece having not conceded a single goal in four away matches this year (three wins, one draw), which represented the joint-longest run of clean sheets on the road in their history (also four between 1925 and 1927).
However, they were torn apart by a Greece team that ended the first half with 11 shots and 1.37 expected goals (xG), compared to Scotland’s five attempts and 0.8 xG.
The second half was a different matter, despite Greece pulling clear soon after the interval. Both teams had seven shots after half-time, but Scotland led the xG battle 1.39 to 0.51.
But in the end, Denmark’s draw with Belarus – who are ranked 103rd in the world and had lost their first four games in the group – was the story of the day, teeing up a winner-take-all showdown on Tuesday.