THE GROUP OF DEATH
SIMON BARNES
Scotland’s best hope of going beyond the group stage could lie at the feet of a man who was actually born in England — but his name is Scott, so that presumably takes care of the eligibility problems. Besides, his father was born in Helensburgh on the Firth of Clyde. Scott McTominay is committed to Scotland all right. He played a blinder of a qualification group. Scotland are supposed to go agonisingly close and then fail at the 11th hour, but this time they forgot the script and won their first five matches. They qualified with two to spare.
McTominay, who has made more than 250 appearances for Manchester United, was at the heart of Scotland’s charge, scoring seven goals from midfield, most of them arriving late in the box for a decisive finish. The only players to score more than he did in qualifying were Romelu Lukaku for Belgium, Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, France’s Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane. McTominay scored twice against Spain, the second a beautiful guided volley into the bottom corner.
This is the fourth time Scotland have qualified for the European Championship finals and for once they go in with a swagger. Mind you, they will need to. Their first match is against the host nation, Germany, in Munich. After that, they play Switzerland and then Hungary. Qualification for the knock-out stage is possible, but it will require a few heroics. It will be a fi
