Scotsman Sports editor Mark Atkinson and football writer Graham Falk assess a difficult night for Steve Clarke and Scotland.
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00:00So an extremely disappointing night here at Hampden as Scotland lose 3-1 to Greece and get relegated to Nations League B. Mark, not a memorable night in many ways?
00:14No, so disappointing for Scotland. It's just been down, listen to Steve Clarke, a very short post-match press conference. Clearly disappointed with the team's performance and the manner of the defeat.
00:24The team lacked energy. He wanted Scotland to put down a marker. It was the Greeks that put down a marker because of course Scotland play Greece in the World Cup qualifiers.
00:32It was a really poor performance from almost every single player. You did the player ratings and I don't think anyone really got past Marks with the exception of Scott McTominay and even then that wasn't a complete performance.
00:43It's a deflating end to what was a very positive Nations League campaign at times and I think it leaves Scotland with a lot of issues to solve going into the World Cup qualifiers because we're going to play this Greek team once more, twice more actually.
00:59They look uproaringly mobile and of course you've got Portugal and Denmark who are playing as we record. So, a sobering night I would call it for Scotland because it probably reminded us that we are a Nations League B team and that it's going to be tough to get into the World Cup but hopefully the team will be stung by that and move forward.
01:19You look at the game on Thursday and I think the first 45 minutes were really impressive. Fully deserved the lead. In the second half, back to the wall but football is sometimes about defending. Tonight, I think bright for the first 10 minutes but then it all just went wrong. How does a game go wrong? Kenny McLean said the first goal affected him but I felt Greece started coming on to Scotland after the first 12 to 15 minutes and it started to go wrong pretty much up until the final whistle.
01:43I think you talk about how well Scotland defended in Piraeus. They had something to hold on to and they had the positive energy of scoring. I felt tonight the crowd was a little bit edgy at times and I think Greece in the first game realised that they could probably hurt Scotland. They just ran out of time to do this in the first half. Their forward line is really strong. Koretsas is obviously a wonderkid in European football.
02:11He's quite good, isn't he?
02:12He's quite good but Tsiolas, who played well for Klub Rugeg and Celtic in the Champions League, he was really good and I hope he played better at Pavlidis up front. He was more physical than Ionidis and I don't think John Suter and Hanley liked that and he gave Greece a focal point to work off. If you look at the two teams' forward lines, Graham, that's the real concern. Greece have got goals throughout the team. Where do Scotland's goals come from if it's not a set piece against really good teams? I don't think we really hurt Greece enough.
02:38It was like the team we had at Petra. That game in the High Race obviously sat well. A few players don't play every week either and that probably doesn't help. I think you mentioned it, Tony Rousey in particular, that kind of match that Jadon did, playing every four days. It becomes a habit if you don't do it every single week. It's very downbeat. We still should be positive to a degree about Scotland because we're in a decent place and we've got a World Cup campaign coming up.
03:05This was a reminder, I think, of just how difficult it's going to be for Scotland to get into the World Cup.
03:11I was going to say, how do you assess, just to close off, how do we assess this Nations League? Because we've done all the games here, you know, we've had Alamut this night, we've been over at the away games as well. The Portugal performance was phenomenal, that mixed zone afterwards, speaking to Kenny McLean, he was talking about how much of a big character Grant Hanley was after the performance against Poland. It started off poorly, they've got a couple of results, but delirium away at Poland, then Warsaw, getting that winner at the end, beating Croatia.
03:39There's plenty of positives, but it's just hard to feel them when you have a performance like you've had tonight, which is Scotland's biggest defeat for five and a half years.
03:47Yes, I think it's a really, if you talk about the assessment, it was always going to be tough to stay in this Nations League, so the fact that we ended up in the play-off is probably, in many respects, a success story.
04:01I think Scotland have come up against a team in Greece that is on the rise, and this Greek team, they've won at Wembley, not many teams have beaten England.
04:10Deservedly so as well.
04:11So, I think it's got to be the acceptance that Scotland have come up against a very dangerous opponent, and they're better than Scotland right now, especially in the forward areas.
04:21I think for me the worry is, has the Scotland team got enough level to try and get into the World Cup, because qualifying for a World Cup is so difficult, we haven't been at one since 1998.
04:32I think tonight was a reminder that to get to the US and Canada and Mexico next summer, we're going to have to really do well to beat this Greek team and whoever comes out of that Portugal-Denmark tie.
04:44Steve Clarke knows that, you can tell that at his post-match press conference, he'll go away and examine.
04:49There's two friendlies, Iceland-Liechtenstein and straight into the World Cup. It's a massive year for Scotland and for Steve Clarke.
04:56It's gone all dark here at Hampden, so it's been a dark day, but hopefully brighter days to come. Thanks very much.
05:01Pleasure.