Scotland win in sunny Cyprus

Scotland secured a rare away victory in Cyprus’ capital Nicosia by defeating their hosts 2-1 to move up to third ahead of them in their Euro 2020 qualifying group.

Scotland’s defeat away to Russia in October ended their chances of securing one of the two automatic qualification spots from the group but they were determined to win their three remaining matches to secure third spot in their group and to give them confidence ahead of their playoff in March next year.

Over 3,000 Scottish fans enjoyed the winter sunshine in shorts / kilts and t-shirt weather as the match kicked off at 1600.

Cyprus should have taken the lead in the first few minutes when former Glasgow Rangers winger Georgios Efrem hit a shot that crashed off the cross bar and bounced down over the goal line. However the Austrian officials didn’t manage to see it and with no VAR available the “goal” went unnoticed.

Scotland then scored a great goal through Ryan Christie a few minutes later as he curled a great shot from the edge of the box to the top left hand corner of the net.

Shortly after half time Efrem managed to score a goal that the officials did notice when he volleyed a superb shot from the edge of the box to level the match.

John McGinn however restored Scotland’s lead with a fine finish just six minutes later. McGinn has now scored 5 goals in the 9 qualifiers to date, 4 more than any other Scottish player!

It was a long 40 final minutes for the Scottish fans as they held on for victory.

A draw at home to Kazakhstan on Tuesday night in Glasgow will secure third spot in their difficult qualifying group. Meanwhile Belgium’s convincing 4-1 win away to Russia on Saturday saw them win the group.