scotland take the cis down with them published: sunday 5 october 2003, 14.59cet
paul mcstay was among the scorers as homeward-bound scotland delivered a big parting shot.
paul mcstay, brian mcclair and gary mcallister struck as scotland overwhelmed the commonwealth of independent states (cis) in their final euro '92 group b game, ensuring both sides exited the competition.
andy roxburgh's team had a right to feel hard done by after losing their opening fixtures against germany and the netherlands, but their luck turned dramatically in norrkoping. mcstay's opener went in off dmitri kharin's head, mcclair profited from another deflection. despite the cis dominating much of the remaining 74 minutes, mcallister made it 3-0 with a late spot kick to ensure it was germany join the oranje in the last four.
scotland went into the game with only pride to play for and they emerged from the opening 16 minutes with heads held impressive high – and, crucially, for opponents who needed victory to go through, leading 2-0. mcstay's low shot broke the deadlock on seven minutes, hitting kharin's left-hand post and cannoning in off the grounded goalkeeper. kakhaber tskhadadze then helped mcclair score his first goal in his 26th international appearance, inadvertently redirecting his shot beyond kharin.
sergei yuran and dmitri aleinikov had chances to pull goals back for anatoli byshovets' men and igor dobrovolski and igor korneev conspired to miss another golden opportunity after the break before a foul on substitute pat nevin allowed mcallister to make it 3-0 six minutes from time. it was the usual bittersweet exit for scotland – and for the side representing the former soviet bloc, who were playing their last match as a unified team.
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