It just HAD to be Ronaldo as superstar breaks his duck against Scots … and denies Clarke some much-needed respite

Portugal 2 Scotland 1

It is a curious anomaly that none of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 900 goals came against a team from Scotland.

In four attempts he had never done what he does better than anyone else. In the final minutes of Lisbon it was time for the headliner supreme to set the record straight.

For Scotland, this latest defeat felt like an old, familiar story. Losing avoidable late goals is becoming a damaging habit.

And yet, Steve Clarke came so close to buying some Nations League respite with a rare and credible point on Portuguese soil.

Scott McTominay’s 11th international goal gave the Scots an unexpected lead, which they maintained until half-time.

Even when Angus Gunn let a long-range shot from birthday boy Bruno Fernandes slip through his fingers early in the second half, Clarke’s team appeared to hold their nerve.

But this is a team that is conditioned to late heartbreak. They lost to Hungary and then to Poland in injury time. And when Ronaldo’s header hit the post and Gunn cleared the ball off the line, you began to wonder if they would survive this time.

Ronaldo, a man who writes his own scripts, had other ideas. Nuno Mendes threw a wicked ball in from the left, the ball bounced terribly in the great narcissist’s direction and the outcome was both predictable and inevitable. He had done it again.

When it comes down to it, Scotland have now won one game in their last 14. The positives against Portugal and Poland are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. They are bottom of their Nations League group with no points from two games, and a trip to Croatia next month offers no real prospect of a turnaround. For Clarke, these are now dangerous days.

Call it stubborn, call it loyal, call it arrogant even. Whatever motivated the Scottish manager to pick the same starting lineup that gave Poland three goals, it worked like a charm for 45 minutes.

It had to be McTominay who scored, because that’s usually the case. A force of nature in a Scotland shirt, the midfielder has now scored ten in his last 17 caps, a record Ronaldo would consider quite a haul.

There was no shortage of fans groaning when they saw Kenny McLean’s name in the line-up ahead of, say, Ryan Gauld. Clarke, of course, loves the ground McLean runs on, and the underrated Norwich City midfielder confirmed his loyalty with a delicious curling cross that tempted McTominay to slot in behind Ruben Dias, surprising a world-class defender.

Diogo Costa barely tried to stop the bullet header that ended up in the roof of the net, the first goal scored by a Scottish player in Lisbon since Paul Sturrock in November 1981.

To win games like this, sometimes a team has to play their luck. An ironic cheer went up from the Tartan Army after half an hour when the excellent AC Milan winger Rafael Leao let the ball go under his foot and out of play. It was the first thing he did wrong in an early game in which he terrorized the overworked Tony Ralston.

Ryan Christie’s attempts to double up the right-back position and provide some support against the Portuguese number 17 were welcome but futile.

The winger cut inside from the left and fired a fizzing shot towards Gunn’s right post, the keeper throwing himself down brilliantly to curl the ball around the post, something he would have done well to do when Poland finally drew level last week.

As the home side wasted chance after chance in the first half in Lisbon, you could almost see substitute Ronaldo sitting on the bench with his arms crossed, burning a hole in the back of manager Roberto Martinez’s head.

Inevitably, the call came after a series of missed chances. When a team needs a goal, it is always useful to have a superstar with 131 to his name at this level.

Scotland’s last notable victory on foreign soil over a team currently in the top 20 of the FIFA rankings was against Croatia in Zagreb in June 2013.

Hopes of victory were all but dashed when Manchester United captain Fernandes slotted home an equaliser with the softest of goals nine minutes after the break.

On a night when he actually made some very decent saves, Gunn dirty his copybook when he was gloved by the playmaker’s 20-yard strike low to his left post but couldn’t stop it. It was reminiscent of Germany’s first goal in their 5-1 defeat at Euro 2024, the shot clumsily and curling. Gunn fell to the ground in exasperation, knowing he should have done better.

Like most of the goals this Scottish team concede these days, it felt unnecessary and avoidable, with the final half hour now threatening to become a test of endurance for a shell-shocked team in white.

And yet, at a time when they could have crumpled and folded as easily as a cheap deck of cards, they confused everyone by uniting.

Two penalty appeals in three minutes were born of desperation rather than genuine grievance. Billy Gilmour went down, replays showed Ruben Neves had made a fine foul. A handball appeal against Nuno Mendes was briefly dismissed by the Italian referee.

Yet when McTominay sent a hard drive into the arms of Costa from 20 yards, Scotland enjoyed their best spell of the match in a long time. It all proved a mirage in the end, however.

The arrival of Tommy Conway and Gauld provided fresh legs but no real relief as Portugal upped the tempo for a great finish

Gunn was given redemption when he made a superb save to keep out a goal from substitute Joao Felix after a ridiculously careless back heel from Ronaldo.

He made himself big, he saved his shot superbly and as the match headed for a frantic end, the Norwich keeper made one great save after another.

He threw himself low to his left to save a diving header, again from Felix, and he scrambled the ball off the line — while being challenged by the lurking Felix — as Ronaldo’s header bounced back across goal off the inside of the post to general disbelief.

In the end, you can’t keep a great man down. When the winner came, it just had to be Ronaldo. He wouldn’t have it any other way.