Scotland 0 Portugal 0: Feted in Paisley, slated in Glasgow… Ronaldo sees his popularity plummet as Scots frustrate illustrious visitors at Hampden

It took about half an hour for the crotchety magician to go through his full repertoire of tricks during his first appearance in Hampden.

A bicycle kick bounced aimlessly past the post and Cristiano Ronaldo threw his arms in the air in protest at some imagined slight. The Belgian referee got an ear full and the Scotland support stood up and responded to the verbals with interest.

Before a training session at St Mirren Park, the man who won his 216th cap felt loved and adored by awed young stargazers. Celebrated in Paisley, scheduled in Glasgow, Scottish fans can be a fickle bunch.

The rancor continued after the final whistle, as the man with more goals to his name than any other player, living or dead, stomped through the Hampden tunnel in frustration. That came minutes after an idiotic, selfie-chasing pitch intruder was felled by a steward’s tackle that Ruben Dias would have been proud of.

Bernardo Silva was shown a yellow card for claiming a final corner with too much force. Portugal’s waste was chronic enough to suggest they wouldn’t have done anything with it anyway.

Perhaps their frustration stemmed from when Aberdeen’s Nicky Devlin made his Scotland debut by heroically blocking a Rafael Leao goal ball in the dying minutes. It summed up a show of dogged resilience from Steve Clarke’s team.

There was nothing beautiful or aesthetically pleasing about Scotland’s first point in League A of the Nations League. For almost ninety minutes it was grim, with our backs against the wall.

No Scotland team had ever lost five games on the spin, and thanks to terrible, blunt Portuguese finishing and some never-say-die resistance, that is still the case.

On a night when Clarke became Scotland’s second-longest serving manager, overtaking Jock Stein and Andy Roxburgh, a scoreless draw offered a reprieve from a miserable run of defeats.

While the run now stretches to one win in sixteen games – and no wins in ten – an injury-ravaged side could not have given much more for their manager or country.

By hook or by crook, they held their own against a team that had won all three of their previous games. In a welcome contrast to recent matches, there was no late heartbreak to report this time.

The final outcome could not disguise the fact that League A of the Nations League has at times been a sobering affair for Scotland. An exercise in challenging survival.

For long periods of this game, Clarke’s men were given a chastening lesson in ball retention. It felt at times as if the ball was magnetically drawn to the feet of Vitinha, Paris Saint-Germain’s £35million midfielder.

Time and time again, a player in dark blue would take the ball off a toe, only to give it away again within three seconds. The Portuguese stroked it, tamed it, walked along it until its eyes bled. The only thing they lacked was progressiveness.

The only surprise came from Scotland, who created the two best chances of the first half.

With ten goals in his last eighteen caps, you would have bet your mortgage on an unmarked Scott McTominay planting Andy Robertson’s weighted cross past Diogo Costa in the Portuguese goal after five minutes. He headed straight at the keeper.

Ryan Christie was next. There were twenty minutes left on the clock when Scotland won a free-kick, which was fiercely contested by Portugal’s captain. As Ronaldo put his stroked lip back in place, Robertson’s free-kick fell favorably for Christie. A rising shot lacked power.

The first signs were promising, but reality soon set in. Look at Scottish teams in any European competition these days and it’s a grim quest for survival. In the final 20 minutes of the first period, Clarke’s team punched and punched the ball out of harm’s way. And every time they did, it came right back.

There were moments towards the end of that opening period when the home side were lucky. They sailed close to the wind.

Nuno Mendes scored a vicious inswinging free-kick, which was brilliantly pushed around the post by Craig Gordon.

When Diogo Jota conceded a knockdown from Mendes, desperate defending prevented the Liverpool man from making the breakthrough. The pressure was patient and relentless, with possession statistics showing more than 70 percent in Portugal’s favour.

Scotland couldn’t continue like this, they needed to see more of the ball. All that was missing was a Portuguese goal and when Ronaldo fired a glory shot high over the bar, the jeers were mainly out of relief. Peace couldn’t come soon enough.

When a man has 906 career goals to his name, golden opportunities are not simply ignored. Yet the second half started much as the first had ended: Portugal cutting their opponents open and Scotland flying by the seat of their pants.

When Ronaldo flew into space with his arm in the air and shouted for the ball, you expected a running header to nestle into the top corner. As the ball fell harmlessly onto the net, a pattern emerged. Portugal made chances, Portugal missed chances, Francisco Conceicao shot over the crossbar moments later.

A rare opportunity fell to Scotland when Christie had a split-second chance to crack one from 18 yards. An unwillingness to shoot is not an accusation you would normally level at the Bournemouth man – and the Tartan Army howled in frustration when he did so. It was grim to watch at times.

Any idea of ​​postponement became laughable when Portuguese manager Roberto Martinez brought on AC Milan winger Leao, Manchester City wizard Bernardo Silva and Ruben Neves, the game-changer in Portugal’s late win over the Scots in Lisbon last month.

The firepower was ruthless and Scotland sometimes looked stupefied. As they fired aimless long balls up the pitch looking for reprieve, you could sense their dismay when it came right back at them.

Kudos to the Scots who stuck with it. Had McTominay managed to clear Anthony Ralston’s skipped cross with 14 minutes to play, they would have called Interpol to report theft on an international scale.

In Ralston’s final move, the Celtic defender was turned inside out by Leao before Bruno Fernandes was brilliantly saved on the line by keeper Gordon.

Released by Hamilton and Motherwell earlier in his career, the sight of Aberdeen’s Devlin trotting on in the final minutes for his international debut and the threat of a Milan winger signed for £35 million felt entirely appropriate.

From a Scottish perspective it was one of those evenings.