{"id":22778,"date":"2025-10-10T06:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T06:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=22778"},"modified":"2025-10-10T06:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T06:04:13","slug":"scotland-sink-greece-to-boost-bid-to-reach-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=22778","title":{"rendered":"Scotland sink Greece to boost bid to reach World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
Scotland stepped up their bid to qualify for the World Cup as Lewis Ferguson’s first international goal paved the way for a vital 3-1 win against Greece in Glasgow on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Steve Clarke’s side trailed to Kostas Tsimikas’s 62nd-minute goal at Hampden Park.<\/p>\n

But Ryan Christie levelled within two minutes and Ferguson marked his 19th cap with his maiden goal 10 minutes from full-time.<\/p>\n

Substitute Lyndon Dykes capped the comeback in stoppage-time as second-placed Scotland stayed level on points with Group C leaders Denmark and moved four points ahead of Greece.<\/p>\n

Chasing a first World Cup appearance since 1998, Scotland host Belarus in their next game on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“When they scored the goal, the shackles came off a bit and from there we finished the game strong,” Clarke said.<\/p>\n

“Football is a 90-minute game and you have to make sure you come out of it with a positive result. 3-1 maybe flatters us, but we did enough to win the game.<\/p>\n

“It gives us three points and takes us one step closer to what we want to do.”<\/p>\n

Greece won 3-0 at Hampden in March in the Nations League play-offs and they made a confident start on their return to Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Vangelis Pavlidis should have put the visitors ahead after a flowing move in the early stages, but his finish was off-target.<\/p>\n

Scotland looked disjointed in possession, often hitting it up to the isolated Che Adams as Greece pressed.<\/p>\n

Pavlidis and Giorgos Masouras drilled over as Greece searched for a breakthrough that finally arrived after another slick move.<\/p>\n

Grant Hanley made a block but the ball fell for Roma left-back Tsimikas to drill home.<\/p>\n

Scotland responded instantly as Anthony Ralston’s high ball into the area was won by Hanley before Bournemouth midfielder Christie ran in to fire home.<\/p>\n

There was a lengthy VAR check but Hanley was just onside before providing the assist.<\/p>\n

Scotland had a huge let-off when substitute Giannis Konstantelias headed wide.<\/p>\n

But Clarke’s men were on top now and Adams’s shot deflected wide from Billy Gilmour’s free-kick.<\/p>\n

Scotland went in front with 10 minutes left when Andy Robertson’s long free-kick caused chaos in the Greece defence.<\/p>\n

John Souttar’s effort was blocked but Ferguson was on hand to lash into the roof of the net from close range.<\/p>\n

Angus Gunn produced a stunning stop to touch a curling effort from Konstantinos Karetsas over the bar.<\/p>\n

And Scotland made the most of that escape to wrap up the points in the final seconds.<\/p>\n

Greece goalkeeper Kostas Tzolakis palmed the ball into the path of Dykes as he tried to prevent a headed passback going out for a corner and the Birmingham striker gratefully slotted into the empty net.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scotland stepped up their bid to qualify for the World Cup as Lewis Ferguson’s first international goal paved the way for a vital 3-1 win against Greece in Glasgow on Thursday. Steve Clarke’s side trailed to Kostas Tsimikas’s 62nd-minute goal at Hampden Park. But Ryan Christie levelled within two minutes and Ferguson marked his 19th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}