Scotland’s miserable Euro 2020 qualifying campaign continued after a second-half capitulation resulted in a heavy defeat by Russia in Moscow.
David Marshall had rarely been troubled before three goals in 13 second-half minutes made it five defeats in seven qualifiers for the visitors. Artem Dzyuba scored twice from corners and Magomed Ozdoev thumped home from long range. Aleksandr Golovin then scored from 10 yards in the 84th minute to make it a second consecutive four-goal defeat for Steve Clarke’s side.
Clarke had handed debuts to Michael Devlin, John Fleck and Lawrence Shankland, the latter from the bench, but he is still left seeking a way to turn around Scotland’s form after conceding 13 goals in four successive defeats. The latest ended Scotland’s remote hopes of a top-two finish and left them fifth in Group I, four points behind the third-placed Cyprus.
They can still qualify for their first major tournament since 1998 via the Euro 2020 play-offs, which begin in March, having earned the chance to progress by winning their Nations League group last year.
Clarke felt Scotland’s “fragile confidence” was apparent as they crumbled following the opener.
“We conceded a soft goal,” he said. “The first goal is soft, from a corner. Man on man we have to do better. From there we quickly found our way out the game. We allowed the game to run away from us. I have to put it down to fragile confidence. The players seemed to lose heart very quickly.”
The manager urged his squad to make sure that they had hit a low point and start on an upward progression with three games left before the play‑offs in March.
When asked what was needed, he said: “Hard work, maybe one or two different selections in terms of squad as well as starting 11. We can’t keep conceding goals. For us it’s trying to make sure this is the very, very bottom of the lowest and then build from here and make sure come March we are able to be very competitive and get through the play-offs and give ourselves the chance to be in the same championships.”
