Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.
Home Sport Football Scottish Football

Scotland’s European Championship qualifying campaign gets off to disastrous start with 3-0 defeat to Kazakhstan

By Andy Skinner
Scotland's Callum McGregor appears dejected during the UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying, Group I match at the Astana Arena.
Scotland's Callum McGregor appears dejected during the UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying, Group I match at the Astana Arena.

Scotland suffered one of the most humiliating results in their history after going down 3-0 to lowly Kazakhstan in their opening EURO 2020 qualifier at Astana Arena.

Goals from Yuriy Pertsukh, Yan Vorogovskiy and Baktiyor Zainutdinov secured victory for a Kazakh side ranked 117th in the world – 77 places below the Scots.

Although Alex McLeish’s side have already secured their place in the play-offs for next summer’s finals by virtue of winning their Nations League section, their result in the newly-renamed Kazakh capital of Nursultan is a severe blow to their hopes of securing automatic qualification through the group stage.

McLeish was it with a raft of selection problems, with skipper Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, Callum Paterson and Ryan Fraser among those unavailable. There were only five players who kept their places from the Scots’ last outing against Israel in November, with David Bates, Scott McKenna, Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest and stand-in skipper Callum McGregor remaining from the side which triumphed 3-2 to win their Nations League group.

Yuriy Pertsukh (L) unleashes an unstoppable strike to put Kazakhstan 1-0 in front.

Aberdeen skipper Graeme Shinnie was handed a first competitive start at left back, and he was joined by Dons team-mate Scott McKenna who was passed fit following a hamstring issue. Liam Palmer, of Sheffield Wednesday, made his debut at right back.

Scotland could not have envisaged a worse start, with the opener arriving just six minutes into the match. Pertsukh beat the offside trap with an untracked run to latch on to a long ball, before superbly lashing high past Scott Bain from just inside the box.

The Scots needed to show a response but their task was made even harder within four minutes, when Islambek Kuat spotted the run of Vorogovskiy in behind Shinnie, allowing the attacker to slot past Bain from 10 yards. It was a horrendous start, and a long way back for McLeish’s men.

Kazakhstan’s Yan Vorogovskiy (R) beats Scott Bain (L) to make it 2-0 to the hosts.

Scotland offered little by way of goal threat in their efforts to claw back, with Bates nodding wide from a Palmer through ball, while McGinn also nodded wide following a free kick.

The closest either side came to adding to the scoresheet before the interval came the way of the hosts on 29 minutes, with Bain required to thwart a third as he tipped Kuat’s dipping long-range drive over the crossbar.

Scotland’s hopes were virtually killed off just six minutes after the break however, when Zainutdinov rose above the Scots defence to plant a looping header past Bain and into the far corner.

The Scots could not even muster a consolation, with Armstrong’s low drive denied by a fine save from goalkeeper Dmytro Neophodov following Oli McBurnie’s lay-off.

Scotland’s Oliver McBurnie appears dejected after Kazakhstan’s Yuriy Pertsukh scores the opener.

Scotland will now look to return to winning ways against San Marino on Sunday, however the pain of this result against Kazakhstan will be felt for a long time.

Saving the embarrassment

The game momentarily went off the air as Sky Sports experienced some technical difficulties.

The Tartan Army took to social media in hilarious fashion thanking the European Qualifiers broadcasters for saving the embarrassment of another Scottish defeat.