Georgia 2-2 Scotland: Steve Clarke’s side secure dramatic draw with sub Lawrence Shankland heading home stoppage-time equaliser after Scott McTominay bagged his seventh goal in Euro 2024 qualifying
Before a ball was kicked, Steve Clarke challenged his players to prove they deserved a seat on the flight to Germany next summer. Lawrence Shankland’s response was swift and emphatic.
The Hearts captain had only been on the pitch for six minutes when he nodded in the extra-time goal, silencing a raucous crowd of 45,000 at the Boris Paichadze Stadium and averting another defeat for Scotland on Georgian soil.
Kvahicha Kvaratskhelia is blessed with the individual genius of a footballing maverick. Like the Napoli superstar who gave him his nickname, Kvaradona doesn’t always make it easy to be liked.
The superstar of Georgian football threatened to preserve Scotland’s miserable results in Tbilisi with a sublime goal in each half.
The second was an attack that the great Diego himself would have been proud of. Already a Serie A title winner at the age of 22, the game, the simulation and the histrionics are less easy to admire.
Scott McTominay scored his seventh goal of the qualifying campaign with a deflected equalizer
Karma turned out to be good for Scotland in the end. Beaten here in the European Championship qualifiers in 2007 and 2015, an extra seven minutes brought Steve Clarke’s side a lifeline. When Shankland met a cross from fellow substitute Stuart Armstrong, he headed a fine header into the net to bring Scotland level for the second time.
One point won’t make much difference to the bigger picture. Qualification ahead of Germany already secured, Spain now have the chance to top the group after a romp in Cyprus. However, after successive defeats to England, Spain and France, this was a match that stopped the rot.
Scott McTominay’s strike early in the second half took his campaign tally to seven. With impeccable timing, Shankland had the last word.
Georgia would probably never become a con man. Only Spain had emerged victorious from the last ten matches here.
Scotland’s oldest goalkeeper to earn his first full cap since Henry Smith in 1988, Zander Clark’s first act was to pick the ball out of the net after 15 minutes. Fast and threatening on the counter Georgia’s first real offensive action tore the Scottish defense apart with two passes.
Overlapping right-back Otar Kakabadze collected the ball on the right and delivered a low first-time cross for Kvaratskhelia to slot in ahead of Porteous and guide the ball home at the near post.
Every time the local superstar got the ball under his control, the crowd of 45,000 roared in anticipation. They knew something was coming.
Lawrence Shankland scored an equalizer in stoppage time to rescue a point for Scotland
Shankland nodded in fellow substitute Stuart Armstrong’s cross in the 92nd minute
When Lyndon Dykes carelessly gave the ball away in his own half, Georgia’s star man produced a through ball that outpaced his Scottish opponents. On goal, Levan Shengalia looked likely to beat Georgia by two until Clark made a fine two-handed stop to keep the ball out.
While the white-shirted Scots had plenty of possession, they wasted it repeatedly. The best – only – scoring opportunity came after a free kick from Billy Gilmour in a dangerous position after 27 minutes.
Dykes rose in a crowded area to send a downward header towards the back post, with the ball bouncing a foot wide. He probably should have done better.
It wasn’t a great first half for Ryan Christie, the Bournemouth man who joined Nathan Patterson in the book for a late challenge. While the right-back posed an attacking threat on the right flank, the Scots lacked the passing power to take advantage. When goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili dropped a cross from the full-back, there was no one there to take advantage.
With his 61st cap (equal with Richard Gough and Ally McCoist), captain John McGinn finished the half by being nutmegged by number ten Giorgi Chakvetadze, to the roar of approval from the 54,000 fans in the national stadium.
After a suitably dismal first half, in which Scotland’s final ball was consistently lax and wayward, the Tartan Army stood in pensive silence. Barring a big second half and significant improvement in the final third, a fourth straight defeat now looked more likely than not.
The arrival of Lewis Ferguson and Kenny McLean for the deviant Christie and Billy Gilmour at half-time made sense. Something had to change for Scotland
Say this for McLean. When Scotland need big moments, the Norwich midfielder produces one so often. The Norwich midfielder’s calmness in possession paid off as he put a promising Scotland strike into the path of McTominay 20 yards from goal. The shot was not his cleanest, but went through the legs of a Georgian defender and left goalkeeper Mamardashvili powerless. By the third question, Scotland had finally scored a goal on Georgian soil.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave Georgia the lead twice against Scotland on Thursday evening
Kvaratskhelia cut in from the left and drilled low past Zander Clark in the 57th minute
Parity lasted eight minutes. Every time Kvaratskhelia collected the ball on the left, with socks around his ankles, the winger had one thought in mind.
Allowing him to cut in from the left – rather than pointing him out – was Scotland’s first defensive mistake. In truth, Zander Clark could do nothing about an unstoppable low drive into the bottom corner of the net. It was a moment of individual brilliance from Georgia’s talisman.
How close Scotland came to a second equalizer. Lyndon Dykes met a corner flush with his head at the near post and the ball looked set to head in until it was clawed away by Giorgi Mamardashvili.
It finally came in the third minute of extra time after a period of sustained Scottish pressure. Shankland, the gauntlet thrown down by manager Clark, accepted the challenge with a perfectly timed equalizer.