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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gabriel McKay

Austria win gives Scotland Euro 2020 qualification boost as path to last 16 opens up for Steve Clarke's men

Austria have beaten Ukraine 1-0 to hand Scotland a huge Euro 2020 qualification boost.

The final Group C matches saw the pair meet in Bucharest, with Andriy Shevchenko's side needing just a draw to go through in second place.

That would have been a disastrous result for Scotland as it would have left Austria in third place on four points, but with a neutral goal difference.

As a result, beating Croatia 1-0 on Tuesday would not have been enough to leapfrog them, with Switzerland also ahead of us in that scenario.

Four of the six third-place teams go through but had Ukraine drawn that would have meant two places were out of reach unless Steve Clarke 's side won by more than one goal.

However, Christoph Baumgartner headed home a David Alaba corner to send Austria through to face Italy at Wembley on Saturday.

And that leaves Ukraine on three points in third place, meaning any Scotland win will at least see us better ranked than Andriy Shevchenko's men.

All eyes now turn to Group B at 8pm where Russia face Denmark and Finland take on Belgium.

If the Belgians win then any win is enough for Scotland on Tuesday.

Russia are on a goal difference of -2 so while a draw would leave them on four points, Scotland would pip them on goal difference with any kind of win as ours would be, at worst, -1.

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