At Hampden Park, Scotland are down to ten men and trail Switzerland in their Nations League opener after a moment of madness and a moment of quality. Jack Hendry was sent off inside ten minutes, and Ricardo Rodriguez curled a left-footed free-kick past Angus Gunn from the edge of the area. The home crowd has made its feelings clear. Referee Nenad Minakovic is not a popular chap with the home fans.
The red card came after Switzerland moved the ball brilliantly from the back. Dan Ndoye broke free and was taken down by Hendry by the edge of the area. It looked a penalty. But a VAR check confirmed the challenge was just outside. Hendry was on his way, and Scotland were down to ten after ten. Rodriguez stepped up for the free-kick, not the penalty, and it did not matter. He curled it past the diving Gunn.
Sebastien Pocognoli, taking charge of Scotland at home for the first time, went into the book for something he said. Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday, speaking on BBC Sportsound, said he thought Pocognoli would be very happy with his side’s reaction since going down to ten men. Opta currently has Switzerland’s win probability at 89.1%. The draw is rated at 9.4%. For the optimists, Scotland’s chances of victory are 1.5%.
Switzerland have so much control, and they just flick a switch. Zeki Amdouni cracked a shot on target, but Angus Gunn was right behind it. Moments later, Gunn had to do a bit more to keep out an effort from Dan Ndoye. James McFadden, the former Scotland forward, called it a good save from Gunn. Scotland’s first menacing moment came when Andrew Robertson curled a low cross in from the left. Oli McBurnie was haring after it, but a stretching Nico Elvedi got there first to concede a corner. Later, McBurnie drove towards the Swiss penalty area from the right and took a tumble. The referee made an emphatic no-foul gesture. The fans were furious, but replays suggested the Scotland forward just lost his balance.
Before kick-off, Pocognoli said he did not have concerns about a lack of goals. In his debut as head coach on Saturday, a Nations League stalemate in Slovenia was Scotland’s third successive match without a goal, following World Cup blanks against Morocco and Brazil in June. ‘It was one game. Some games you score. Some games you are unlucky,’ said the Scotland head coach. ‘I don’t think there’s any concerns from my side to score goals because we have good strikers.’ Bologna midfielder Lewis Ferguson, who played the 90 minutes in Ljubljana, echoed his national head coach’s thoughts. ‘On another day we score two or three,’ Ferguson said of Saturday’s encounter. ‘The strikers will be disappointed, but I think we’d be more worried as a group if we weren’t creating those chances.’
Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin missed his country’s pre-match media conference, with the Swiss FA saying Yakin had hearing problems. He struggled with the pressure from the flight. There were problems with the weight as they entered the flight, meaning they had to land again in Zurich and put more fuel in the engine. Yakin’s assistant, Davide Calla, took over media duties and said the Swiss have spent a lot of time looking at Scotland. ‘It was an absolute highlight playing at this brilliant stadium,’ Calla said. ‘We’ll have lots of motivation to play in this big match.’ Switzerland beat North Macedonia 3-0 without the vastly experienced duo of Granit Xhaka and Breel Embolo, who will play no part in this run of matches. Napoli star Scott McTominay is missing for Scotland as he recovers from a minor heart procedure, while Lawrence Shankland and Che Adams are injured and Kieran Tierney was a late withdrawal, along with Kenny McLean.
