Stuttering Scotland suffer another hard luck story as pressure grows on Steve Clarke after gutting Croatia loss - 5 talking points

Stuttering Scotland suffered yet another hard-luck story in Zagreb as under-pressure Steve Clarke saw VAR snatch away a deserved point.

It’s now four straight defeats for the beleaguered boss and one win in 15 yet after another deflating loss at the Stadion Maksimir. It all started so brightly for Clarke’s men as they deservedly stormed ahead half an hour in through Ryan Christie. But they barely had time to celebrate that opener before Igor Matanovic pulled the hosts back level three minutes later.

Croatia ramped up the tempo after the break and got the winner with 20 minutes left as Andrej Kramaric marked his 99th cap with a goal. Christie could have salvaged a draw late on but wasted a huge chance after being sent clean through in Croatia keeper Dominik Livakovic. And Scotland suffered another bitter blow in stoppage time when VAR intervened to chalk off Kristijan Jakic’s last-gasp own goal.

Clarke’s job of reinvigorating his team were hardly helped by a nightmare casualty list denying him the services of 10 squad regulars. But the coach can’t have been anything else but satisfied with his team’s opening 45 minutes as they more than matched the world’s No12 ranked side.

Early efforts from Christie and Billy Gilmour offered promise. But it took until the 33rd minute for the visitors to snatch the breakthrough. Doak’s charge down the right had Croatia scrambling for cover.

The Liverpool kid - on loan at Middlesbrough this season - couldn’t pick out Scott McTominay in the box but the delivery spooked Josip Sutalo into a mis-kick that dropped perfectly for Christie. He still had work to do with the angle against the Bournemouth midfielder but he found the space to hook past Croatian keeper Livakovic and despairing