Five reasons for Scots to have hope

By MARK WALKER
Published on 16/10/2012 10:02

GIVEN that Belgium are one of the form teams in the continent right now and Scotland have only picked up two points from their opening three World Cup qualifying matches, it is widely expected that Craig Levein’s men will be blown away in Brussels this evening.

But the Scots have shocked the world before when they’ve been written off. Here, we take a brief look at five famous away triumphs.

1. England 2-3 Scotland

Scotland stunned the world champions in 1967 by inflicting their first defeat since winning the World Cup the previous year. Goals from Denis Law, Bobby Lennox and Jim McCalliog sealed an unlikely win.

2. France 0-1 Scotland

In September 2007, France were desperate for revenge for a shock Hampden defeat, but a James McFadden piledriver sent the huge number of Scots in the Parc des Princes into raptures with a sensational long-range strike.

3. Germany 0-1 Scotland

A makeshift Scots side were not given much hope in Bremen in 1999, but Craig Brown’s men were superb and stopped the Germans from playing. Don Hutchison knocked in a Billy Dodds cutback to clinch a shock win.

4. England 0-1 Scotland

Scotland were written off after a 2-0 home defeat in the Euro 2000 play-off. But they travelled to Wembley and won through a Hutchison header and only a superb David Seaman save from Christian Dailly prevented extra time.

5. Spain 2-6 Scotland

Ian McColl’s men ran amok in the Bernabeu in 1963 with six different scorers to stun Spain. They were Frank McLintock, Willie Henderson, Dave Gibson, Ian St John, Denis Law and Davie Wilson.