On a night that saw Northern Ireland book their place at EURO 2016 and the Republic stun Germany with a win which sees them at least bag a play-off place, Scotland saw their dreams of a place in next summer’s finals in France finally disintegrate.
The Scots’ hopes of securing a play-off place in Group D were already hanging by a very slender thread ahead of Thursday’s clash with Poland, and a goal from in-form Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski after just three minutes stunned the Hampden crowd.
However, Gordon Strachen’s side fought back, with Bournemouth’s Matt Ritchie producing a superb strike on the stroke of half-time to level the scores.
On the hour-mark, the hosts went ahead courtesy of another cracker, with the much-maligned Steven Fletcher curling home a fine effort.
Decent finish from Steve Fletcher to put Scotland 2-1 up! First on Klopp’s target list?! pic.twitter.com/KfXQzStoGg
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) October 8, 2015
The hosts looked to have secured the victory when at the death, Lewandowski pounced again after a free-kick from Kamil Grosicki’s deflected free-kick had come back off the post. And that was that for the Scots.
With the Republic of Ireland securing a shock 1-0 win at home to Germany, even a win for the Scots ultimately wouldn’t have been enough however, as their once promising campaign ended in disappointment yet again.
(Highlights: Footytube)