PARIS: Scotland ground out a 2-1 home win over Belarus on Sunday to stay in contention for automatic qualification to the 2026 World Cup, while the Netherlands closed in on securing their berth at the tournament with a win over Finland.

Steve Clarke’s Scotland sit joint top of Group C with Denmark, after the Danes beat Greece 3-1 with Rasmus Hojlund opening the scoring for the home team.

Denmark are first in the pool on goal difference with both teams on 10 points after four games but their win in Copenhagen ensured Scotland of at least a play-off spot as they bid to make a first World Cup appearance since 1998.

The pool-toppers meet in the final qualification matchday on November 18 in Glasgow.

“We know every game from now until the end is so important,” Scott McTominay told BBC Scotland after defeating Belarus. “It’s been good in terms of points picked up but we know we’ve got to be better than what we’ve shown, everybody does, me included. We’ve got to be at a higher standard than this.”

Che Adams scored the opener for the hosts on the quarter-hour at Ha­mpden Park in an otherwise uninspiring performance by Scotland.

They thought they were due a penalty just shy of the hour for a succession of incidents in the Belarus box, including two calls for a foul and hand-ball shouts going both ways, but after a lengthy VAR review the referee declined the home side’s appeals and awarded a free-kick out.

Scotland then had VAR to thank on 63 minutes when Evgeni Malashevich’s leveller was eventually disallowed for a foul in the build-up on Napoli Serie A winner McTominay.

In a busy sequence for the VAR officials, Adams put the ball into the Belarus net for a second time in the 70th minute, but video replays confirmed the original on-field decision that the Torino man was offside.

McTominay eventually managed to seal an important victory for Scotland as he lashed home with his left foot with six minutes remaining.

Belarus punished poor Scotland defending deep in injury time as Hleb Kuchko found the net but it was too little, too late for the visitors as the Scots clung on to boos from their own fans.

Hojlund’s hot streak continues since leaving Manchester United to join Napoli on loan last month.

He has eight goals for club and country since his move after capitalising on a glaring mistake by Greek midfielder Christos Zafeiris to put Denmark ahead in the 21st minute against Greece.

Joachim Andersen doubled their lead, heading in a Mikkel Damsgaard corner in the 40th minute, and one minute later, another defensive error by Greece let Damsgaard finish into an empty net with a first-time strike.

Denmark took their foot off the gas after the break and Greece pulled one back in the 63rd minute as Christos Tzolis fired a powerful shot over goalkeeper Kasper Sch­m­eichel on a counter-attack, the first goal Denmark had conceded in their qualifying campaign.

“Overall, I don’t think we played our best game today,” Denmark midfielder Morten Hjulmand said. “(The win is) the most important thing. It’s the three points. Somet­imes you don’t reach the top level. I don’t think we did that today, but we won 3-1 against a strong team.”

Memphis Depay extended his Netherlands scoring record as they cruised to an easy 4-0 win over Finland in Amsterdam to maintain their three-point lead at the summit of Group ‘G’.

Donyell Malen got the scoring going at the Johan Cruyff Arena with an eighth-minute strike, followed by a header from Virgil van Dijk nine minutes later for the Dutch who top the group on 16 points with two games remaining.

Depay tucked away a 38th-minute penalty to take his tally of goals for the Dutch to 54, having gone past Robin van Persie’s previous record of 50 last month, before Cody Gakpo made it 4-0 six minutes from fulltime.

Poland are three points behind in second. Sebastian Szymanski scored directly from a corner and Robert Lewandowski got the other goal in Poland’s 2-0 win against Lithuania.

Faroe Islands continued their excellent form in Group ‘L’ as they stunned the Czech Republic in Torshavn, winning 2-1.

Martin Agnarsson grabbed the winner on 81 minutes, 120 seconds after Adam Karabec had seemed to spare Czech blushes when he cancelled out the hosts’s 67th-minute opener by Hanus Sorensen.

Faroe Islands now sit one point behind their second-placed opponents with four wins from seven outings.

Croatia, World Cup runners-up in 2018, are three points ahead of the Czech Republic after an unconvincing 3-0 home win against Gibraltar.

In Group ‘H’, Cyprus won 4-0 in San Marino in the day’s first kick-off while Romania beat pool leaders Austria 1-0 courtesy of a 95th-minute winner by Virgil Ghita.

The Austrians now sit two points ahead of second-placed Bosnia and Hercegovina after their first defeat of the campaign.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2025