Alan Pattullo on Scotland's 1-0 win over Greece in the first leg of their Nations League play-off tie
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00:00Hello, this is Alan Patullo, football writer for the Scotsman, sitting in Piraeus, following
00:11a very good Scotland victory over Greece 1-0 in the first leg of this Nations League play-off
00:18tie. Scott McTominay's first-half penalty, slightly contentious penalty, saw Scotland
00:26go in at interval 1-0 in the lead. They were probably worth it, I think, but the second
00:32half had to survive some nervy moments as Greece piled on the pressure inside the full
00:41stadium, full of passionate home fans, 30,000 or so, roaring their team on. They weren't
00:50happy with the German referee, Tobias Steeler, who awarded Scotland this penalty in the first
00:59half, in what looked like a possibly 50-50 challenge in the box, which saw McTominay
01:07go down and Greek right-back Lazarus Rota also hit the floor, but the referee pointed
01:20to the spot and VAR did not overrule him and McTominay slotted in his first goal after
01:31four goalless games for him. A mini-drought for McTominay, such a prolific goalscorer
01:36for Scotland. He's back on the goal-scoring trail, which is a good thing. Interesting
01:41that I mentioned the referee, Tobias Steeler, interesting that he actually refereed a Greek
01:45league game here just four weeks ago between Olympiacos, the home team, and Pike-Pouk,
01:57the big Greek side. So yeah, whether he gets an invite back from the Hellenic Football
02:04Federation, I would suggest probably not. But he did award Greece a penalty later on,
02:14which was after Hanley had committed a foul. It was later deemed to have been outside the
02:19box, so that was downgraded to a free-kick. Fortunately, the effort from the free-kick
02:29just outside the box hit the Scottish wall. Scotland survived the last few minutes and
02:35off the players went to hail the away fans, and the away fans hailed the Scotland players
02:42who really had put everything into the second half to ensure they go to Hampden on Sunday
02:47with this slender 1-0 lead. Steve Clarke, sitting here just behind me about half an
02:52hour ago, he insists the game is ill-attised, still very much alive, and he pointed to Greece's
02:58formidable away record. They've obviously won in Wembley against England recently and
03:03also in Ireland and against Finland, so yeah, I wouldn't be completely writing them off
03:10yet. But obviously Scotland are in a strong position for the second leg of this game on
03:19Sunday at Hampden, and I would suggest the odds are they will retain their League A status,
03:26which is a good start to a very important year for the international team, of course
03:30World Cup qualifiers later on this year, including two games against Greece. So I think to have
03:39one here, one away, you would certainly take that result again in Greece when Scotland
03:52return here later on in the year. But as it is for now, a historic night in Greece
03:58for Scotland, 1-0, a first win in Greece for Scotland, when we played here once before
04:04in 1994, lost that 1-0 to a penalty, so it feels quite poetic that we've come here tonight
04:12and won 1-0 with a penalty. I've just written a match report, it's been online for a couple
04:17of hours, and I've just filed some Steve Clarke quotes as well, so keep logged into
04:25Scotsman.com for more reaction to this result.