No Scotland supporter was logging on to Skyscanner and pricing up the cost of flights from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow to Guadalupe, Toronto and Philadelphia next summer when the final whistle brought an end to proceedings in the ZTE Arena on Monday night.
Steve Clarke’s men, who beat Belarus 2-0 in Zalaegerszeg in Hungary thanks to a well-worked Che Adams strike in the first half and a Zakhar Volkov own goal in the second, have certainly made an extremely encouraging start to their World Cup qualifying campaign this month.
The national team are level on points with top seeds and section leaders Denmark, who were held to a 0-0 draw in a packed Parken Stadium in Copenhagen on Friday night, following their opening two Group C outings. So far, so good then.
Yet, even the most delirious member of the Tartan Army realises that there is still an awful lot of football to be played before a place at the finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States is secured.
Read more:
-
Next mind Ben Gannon-Doak - these old timers can fire Scotland to World Cup finals
-
Scotland Under-21 coach gives update on 'vomiting' Hearts player after 'hellish' trip
-
Why Dundee defender Luke Graham is glad he snubbed Premier League - for Lochee United
Seasoned followers of Scotland, who last featured in football’s greatest tournament at France ’98 some 27 years ago, know far better than to get carried away at this early stage in their campaign. They are fully anticipating a few slip-ups, setbacks and sickeners in the months ahead.
However, if Andy Robertson and his team mates can overcome Greece in their next game at Hampden on Thursday, October 9, then excitement levels among their followers are sure to go through the roof.
A win in their next outing would put them four points clear of their rivals with three fixtures – including a home game against group whipping boys Belarus a few days later - remaining and increase their chances of finishing in one of the top two spots enormously.
Getting a victory over Ivan Jovanovic’s side, of course, will be far easier said than done. They are currently eight places above them in the FIFA World Rankings. They also ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in the second leg of the Nations League A League play-off in Glasgow back in March.
But the surprise 3-0 defeat which Greece slumped to at the hands of Denmark in the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus on Monday night has given Scotland fans hope their lads can avenge their previous reverse and give their chances of achieving their ultimate objective a huge boost.
Stephen Kountourou, the host of the Hellas Football podcast, is hopeful that it was a freak result and confident that his country will produce a vastly improved display when they return to Hampden in October. They were impressive in their 5-1 victory over Belarus last week.
But he felt that man marking their key attacking players, not least the teen sensation Konstantinos Karetsas, proved highly effective for Denmark and enabled the Euro 2020 semi-finalists to keep a clean sheet and win comfortably at the end of the 90 minutes.
“There may have been a bit of naivety from the fans going into this one,” said Kountourou. “Nobody was assuming that Denmark would be pushovers, but we thought we might have an opportunity to get a victory at home. Sadly, everything that could have gone wrong went catastrophically wrong.
“The line-up, while very similar to the one that beat Scotland in March, was very inexperienced and they were playing against a team that has consistently qualified for major tournaments over the last decade. It showed.
Read more:
-
How Scotland fans got behind the Children of Chernobyl after shameful Belarus lockout
-
Dermot Desmond is the new Fergus McCann – history will be kind to Celtic powerbroker
-
New Celtic signing was set to be freed in 2023 - so how did he become a £5.2m man?
“Tactically, we made the wrong decisions. I don’t think Jovanovic set us up in the best way to break the visitors down. They just soaked up all of the pressure we applied early on and countered really well. They took advantage of the fact we couldn't quite get the ball out of our own box. Our heads dropped after that and they just brushed us aside.
“They got their tactics right on the night. They set their team up right. They knew exactly what we were going to do with our dynamic, young forwards, the likes of [Giannis] Konstanelias and Karetsas. They completely cancelled them out.
“Every time they tried to do something there was always somebody in front of them preventing them from using their creative spark. There were moments when Karetsas would normally have taken a shot or tried to score and he hesitated. Defensively, they were just much better than us. Our attack was almost completely nullified. They took their opportunities when they had them as well.”
He added, “I don't think that it's necessarily a cause for concern. We know what this Greece team is capable of. We have seen that against Scotland and against England before that. At the end of the day, the team is still very young, is still figuring itself out. But it has definitely worried a few people. It needs to be is a big wake-up call.
Kountourou is optimistic that Karetsas, who is being monitored by many of the biggest clubs in Europe and who is expected to be sold by Belgian club Genk for an eight figure fee next summer, will be at his best once again at Hampden next month and can help Greece get their World Cup bid back on track.
“We were very good against Belarus and could very well have got into to double figures,” he said. “That is not something we've seen from Greece in a very long time. We created 30 scoring chances in that game. We hoped we could do the same to Denmark, but they were far tougher opponents.
“But it's not kind of panic stations yet because it's only the second game. There's still time to rectify it. Plus, Karetsas was excellent against Belarus and opened the scoring. He's so young, is not even 18 yet. It's hard to know what to expect from such a player at international level. But he is showing such maturity it is amazing.”
