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Israel’s Manor Solomon offered further proof of their growing talent when Scotland’s hopes of winning Group B2 of the League of Nations evaporated on the shores of the Mediterranean.
A defeat with possibly unfortunate ramifications for World Cup qualification left Steve Clarke depressed six days after celebrating reaching the belated Euro 2020 of next summer. “We are all disappointed,” he said. “The effort cannot be questioned, but if we want to continue improving, we have to be more clinical. There was a bit of a lack of quality in the last third.”
Even though it was approaching 10 p.m. local time at the start, temperatures were still hovering around 20 ° C on a warm November night in Netanya. Willi Ruttensteiner, Israel’s Austrian coach, probably found the atmosphere appreciably warmer after accepting that he faces expulsion following his team’s failure to qualify for Euro 2020 following their penalty shootout loss to Scotland earlier in the month. past. The revenge secured by Solomon’s winner must have been more bitter than sweet.
Clarke’s team proceeded to prevail in another shootout, against Serbia, last Thursday to secure their own spot at the European Championship party, but it seemed the battle in Belgrade had taken its toll ahead of a match that the Scotland coach regarded as a potentially vital scenario for Qatar 2022.
If conventional World Cup qualifiers didn’t clear the way to Doha, Clark knew that the success of the Nations Cup could have offered a backdoor path. It all meant a lot based on his team’s fifth meeting with Israel in just over two years.
Although Shakhtar Donetsk’s Solomon drew attention, Scotland initially exuded confidence, conjuring a pair of half chances before John McGinn forced a former Easter Road teammate to make a brilliant save.
When the Aston Villa midfielder found a good cross from Scott McTominay with his head, a goal seemed inevitable, but Hibs goalkeeper Ofir Marciano kept the parity thanks to some wonderful stunts to get the ball under the crossbar.
Shortly before the break, Solomon left David Marshall with no hope of similar heroic deeds. Having known the delivery of Eran Zahavi, the 21-year-old striker pushed his way through the Scottish defense, seemingly enjoying in particular tricking and dodging McTominay before unerringly shooting past the goalkeeper.
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McGinn, Declan Gallagher, Stephen O’Donnell, Leigh Griffiths and Scott McKenna turned down second-half opportunities as Israel sat deep and reveled in frustrating their increasingly desperate guests before nearly scoring at the break, as Marshall magnificently saved. to deny Eyal Golasa.
By the final whistle, the Czech Republic was on top of B2 and Clarke was undoubtedly glaring at Solomon. “It’s a missed opportunity,” acknowledged the Scotland coach. “But we still have a lot to look forward to.”
