Scotland lose to Greece but handed a lifeline by Danes' draw with Belarus

ATHENS :Scotland are one home win away from securing a place in next year's World Cup despite suffering a 3-2 defeat by Greece on Saturday, with Denmark's 2-2 draw with Belarus in the other Group C game offering a lifeline and setting up a blockbuster clash with the Danes on Tuesday.

Denmark top the group with 11 points after five games. Scotland, who could not find an equaliser even though they clawed back from three goals down, are second with 10 points after suffering their first defeat of the campaign.

While a first-place finish clinches an automatic spot in next year's finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, Saturday's result guaranteed Scotland at least a qualifying playoff spot.

Already-eliminated Greece looked poised to hand their visitors a thorough thrashing with goals from Tasos Bakasetas, Konstantinos Karetsas and Christos Tzolis, but Scotland's Ben Gannon-Doak and Ryan Christie pulled goals back to set up a breathtaking final few minutes. 

After the final whistle blew, the Scottish players and staff peered at their phones for updates from the Belarus-Denmark match during an agonising final few minutes.

"That's what we wanted (to still have a chance of qualifying automatically)," Scotland captain Andy Robertson told the BBC.

"We cannot concede three goals, that's hugely disappointing. We had eight or nine really big chances so we got the attacking bit right tonight.

"Winner takes all on Tuesday, that's all we could ask for. People were writing us off from the start of the group now we've got a shoot-out to win the group and it's all to play for on Tuesday."

Bakasetas scored in the seventh minute in a nightmare start for Scotland. John Souttar misjudged a ball allowing Vangelis Pavlidis to take a shot that