UEFA Nations League A Group 1
Scotland 2-3 Poland
Thursday, 5 September 2024
Hampden Park, Glasgow

Scorers

Scotland 2 (Billy Gilmour 46’, Scott McTominay 76’)

Poland 3 (Sebastian Szymański 8’, Robert Lewandowski 44’, Nicola Zalewski 90+7’)

Team News

Andy Robertson and John McGinn both reached milestone appearances with their inclusion in the starting line-up. Captain Andy Robertson got his 75th Scotland Cap while John McGinn got his 70th.

Ben Doak and Ryan Gauld both made their Scotland debuts when they came on as second half substitutes.

As It Happened

The Tartan Army returned to Hampden Park for the first time following the summer trip to Germany for Euro 2024. It was the first match of the UEFA Nations League campaign in which Scotland had newly been promoted to League A.

It was the visitors who gained an early advantage, opening the scoring in the eighth minute. Kacper Urbański won the ball back in the middle of the park, allowing Poland to break forward, and Sebastian Szymański fired a long distance strike towards goal which went in off the right hand post.

Scotland had the ball in the back of the net in the 22nd minute when an Andy Robertson free kick into the back post area was tapped in by Scott McTominay; however the goal was disallowed due to a handball from McTominay in the lead up to the ball crossing the line.

Poland doubled their lead on the stroke of half time. They were awarded a penalty when Nicola Zalewski was brought down in the box by Scott McKenna and captain Robert Lewandowski scored the penalty low and powerfully into the bottom left corner.

Scotland had the perfect start to the second half as they scored within a minute of the restart. Ryan Christie, with his back towards goal and a defender closing him down, played the ball to Billy Gilmour who was just inside the 18 yard box and he didn’t hesitate before firing the ball into the back of the net.

After a positive second half display, Scotland got their equaliser in the 76th minute. Ben Doak played the ball to Anthony Ralston and the right back crossed the ball into the danger area where it was met by Scott McTominay who slotted it home, sending Hampden Park wild.

Deep into stoppage time, Poland were awarded another penalty when Nicola Zalewski was brought down in the box by Grant Hanley. Zalewski stepped up to take the penalty and, despite Angus Gunn getting a hand to the effort, the ball was squeezed into the bottom left corner to give Poland all three points in the opening game of the Nations League campaign.

Next Up

Scotland travel to Lisbon where they will take on Portugal on Sunday, 8 September. The game will be shown live on ITV4 and ITVX from 7:30pm.

Teams

Scotland: Gunn, Ralston, Robertson, McTominay, Hanley, McKenna, McGinn, Gilmour (Morgan 82’), Dykes (Shankland 71’), Christie (Gauld 71’), McLean (Doak 71’)

Unused Substitutes: McCracken, Clark, Doig, Barron, Porteous, Souttar, Conway, Johnston

Poland: Bulka, Kiwior (Walukiewicz 46’), Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Zalewski, Zieliński (Moder 82’), Frankowski, Urbański, Szymański (Slisz 82’), Piątek (Piotrowski 72’), Lewandowski (Buksa 72’)

Unused Substitutes: Skorupski, Drągowski, Bereszyński, Puchacz, Piątkowski, Kaminski, Świderski