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Scotland’s late show in Glasgow means Steve Clarke’s side have qualified for the global footballing showpiece for the first time since 1998 <\/p>\n
PARIS – Injury-time wonder-goals by Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean handed Scotland a stunning 4-2 win over Denmark on Tuesday to qualify them for the 2026 World Cup, while Spain also booked their ticket with a 2-2 draw against Turkey.<\/p>\n
Belgium thumped Liechtenstein 7-0 to reach next year’s tournament as Switzerland and Austria ground out draws to secure their places in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Scotland’s late show in Glasgow means Steve Clarke’s side have qualified for the global footballing showpiece for the first time since 1998.<\/p>\n
Level at 2-2 as the clock ticked past 90, Denmark were set to advance to the World Cup as Group C winners until Tierney curled in an exquisite finish from distance three minutes into injury time.<\/p>\n
McLean then put the match beyond doubt as he lifted the ball over Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was well off his line, from the halfway line on 98 minutes.<\/p>\n
“That just sums up this squad,” captain Andy Robertson told the BBC. “Never say die. We just keep going right to the end and one of the craziest games.<\/p>\n
“We put the country through it, but I’m sure it’s worth it. We’re going to the World Cup.”<\/p>\n
Earlier, Napoli midfielder Scott McTominay had given the hosts a third-minute lead with a towering overhead kick.<\/p>\n
McTominay’s clubmate Rasmus Hojlund levelled for Denmark from the spot just shy of the hour, before his side went down to 10 as Rasmus Kristensen picked up a second booking.<\/p>\n
An anxious Hampden Park let out a roar of ecstasy and relief in the 78th minute as Lawrence Shankland turned in from close range.<\/p>\n
But Denmark struck back again through Patrick Dorgu four minutes later before Tierney and McLean stole the headlines.<\/p>\n
Denmark will now be in Thursday’s draw for the European play-offs, which will take place next March.<\/p>\n
Switzerland will appear in a sixth successive World Cup finals after drawing 1-1 in Pristina against Kosovo.<\/p>\n
With the Swiss needing to avoid a defeat by six goals to seal top spot, they rarely looked troubled as Ruben Vargas handed them the lead in the 47th minute before Florent Muslija equalised.<\/p>\n
– ‘Bitter-sweet’ –<\/p>\n
Euro 2024 winners Spain found themselves in a similar situation in Seville against Turkey but also never looked like going down to the seven-goal loss that would have sent the visitors through in their place.<\/p>\n
Dani Olmo fired Spain ahead but Deniz Gul and Salih Ozcan struck for Turkey as the hosts conceded their first goals in the qualification process.<\/p>\n
But Mikel Oyarzabal hit back after the hour to extend Spain’s unbeaten run.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to finish with a win and a clean sheet, so it’s bitter-sweet… but we’re happy to qualify for the World Cup,” Olmo told TVE.<\/p>\n
Michael Gregoritsch bundled home a 77th-minute leveller to snatch a 1-1 draw for Austria against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which sealed Ralf Rangnick’s team a first World Cup appearance in 28 years.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe it; we made it! I have been trying to reach the World Cup for 18 years. Finally now, at the end of my career, we got there. I can’t wait,” 36-year-old Austrian forward Marko Arnautovic said, according to UEFA.com.<\/p>\n
Haris Tabakovic’s early strike had looked as if it might be enough for the visitors to snatch first place from under Austria’s noses until Gregoritsch condemned Bosnia to the play-offs.<\/p>\n
Belgium, semi-finalists in 2018, cruised into the draw for the World Cup with a Jeremy Doku-inspired hammering of Liechtenstein.<\/p>\n
The Manchester City winger grabbed a brace in Liege as Charles De Ketelaere also netted twice and Hans Vanaken, Brandon Mechele and Alexis Saelemaekers completed the rout.<\/p>\n
In Group J’s other match, second-placed Wales also ran up seven goals as they beat North Macedonia 7-1 with Harry Wilson scoring a hat-trick of set-piece goals.<\/p>\n
North Macedonia can, nonetheless, look forward to a play-off place courtesy of their Nations League performance.<\/p>\n
Romania, who beat San Marino by the same scoreline, will also have the chance to reach the World Cup thanks to the Nations League after finishing third in Group H.<\/p>\n
Sweden, who picked up just their second point of the qualifying campaign with a 1-1 home draw against Slovenia, advanced in the same manner.<\/p>\n
The 16-team European play-offs will allow an additional four teams from the continent to make it to North America next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland’s late show in Glasgow means Steve Clarke’s side have qualified for the global footballing showpiece for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,94,104,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-579467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-spain","12":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115573858263000929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}