Scotland v Spain: Euro 2024 qualifying – live

50 min: McGinn swings the free kick into the mixer. McTominay can’t win a header at the far stick. Christie shanks the loose ball wide left. Kepa not put to work at all.

49 min: Christie goes skipping elegantly down the right wing only to be barged over by Gaya. A free kick in a dangerous position. The replacement referee passes up the opportunity to show a yellow.

48 min: Carvajal’s first act is to clank a dreadful ball straight to Dykes, who has McGinn scampering into space to his right. Dykes then channels his inner Carvajal and clanks the ball straight back to the visitors. A chance to launch an increasingly rare Scottish attack passed up.

46 min: Williams is immediately in the thick of it, making good down the right before checking back and finding Rodri, who arrows a daisycutter straight at Gunn, who gathers well on the line.

Spain make two half-time changes: Porro and Oyarzabal are replaced by Williams and Carvajal. Meanwhile the referee Sandro Schärer has pulled a muscle, so he’s replaced by the fourth official Lukas Fähndrich. Scotland, as they were, get the second half underway.

Half-time postbag. “Samuel Campbell completely wrong. Porro was cheating, even his teammates looked embarrassed. No card for Robertson and a yellow for Porro would have been the correct decision” – John Graham

“I don’t think I can believe this MBM. Maybe the match isn’t on at all and you’re making it all up. Eg twice in this half you have used ‘McTominay’ and ‘calm’ together and that obviously cannot be true, so maybe none of it is?” – Colum Farrelly

“Spain are terrible” – Jeff Sax

Half-time entertainment.

HALF TIME: Scotland 1-0 Spain

45 min +2: What a chance for Dykes! Porro crosses from the right. McGregor intercepts. Tierney blooters upfield … and Dykes gets in ahead of Garcia down the inside left! He bundles the ball towards the edge of the Spain box, draws Kepa, but gets too much on his attempted lob. Over the bar it sails. To be fair to Garcia, he recovered well and did just enough to put Dykes off at the very last.

45 min: There will be two additional minutes tacked onto the end of this tumultuous first half.

44 min: Porro crosses from the right. Joselu goes down on the edge of the six-yard box. He does so very easily … but Porteous does have a hand on his shirt, so you can see why he’s trying to purchase a cheap penalty. The referee’s not interested, though.

43 min: Spain ping it around awhile but go absolutely nowhere. Probably for the best that the match calms down a little, because tempers have been getting frayed. I doubt there’s a single calm punter in Hampden.

41 min: Clarke has a wee chat with the fourth official. He’s really not happy with the referee’s performance. Though on that subject, here’s Samuel Campbell: “I think Robertson is very lucky there. Obviously the Spain player has made the most of it but Robertson knew what he was doing. He definitely tried to leave a bit on him. Red for Robertson and a yellow for Porro for his reaction would have been fair.”

39 min: Merino slips a ball down the inside-left channel and into the Scotland box. Joselu chases after it but Hanley shepherds the ball out for a goal kick. Joselu goes over and claims a penalty. VAR checks, but it’s a clear dive. No penalty, but no yellow card either. Incensed reactions from both Robertson and, on the bench, Clarke. Oh, and in the stands as well. Hampden is a glorious bubbling cauldron!

37 min: Before McGinn’s corner can be taken, Tierney twice claims to have been shoved over by Oyarzabal. The referee’s not interested. McGinn takes. At the near post, Martinez nearly eyebrows into his own net. McGinn takes again. Spain deal with the second one, eventually drawing a free kick from the middle of a penalty-box brouhaha.

36 min: McTominay keeps calm in the middle of a melee just outside the Spain box, steps down the inside-right channel, and curls low into the mixer. With Dykes lurking, Gaya is forced to extend a leg and steer out for a corner.

34 min: Dykes and Garcia go up for a long ball on the edge of the Spanish D. The Scottish striker catches his opponent on the jaw with a leading arm, and goes into the book as a result. The home crowd don’t agree with that one either, and now they’ve got two players to go after for the rest of the game.

33 min: Ceballos drifts in from the left and rolls into the box for Joselu, who can’t control with his back to goal and under pressure from Tierney. The ball clips his hand, and once again the pressure on Scotland is released.

31 min: Porro is getting pantomime pelters every time he touches the ball. Almost as loud as the celebration of the goal. What an atmosphere in Hampden tonight!

30 min: The second corner of the sequence is cleared, and it’s a moment of blessed relief for Scotland, who are in All Hands On Deck mode at the moment. Spain totally on top as they search the equaliser.

29 min: Spain are suddenly on top, with the hosts and the Hampden crowd both a bit rattled. A lot of very loud booing as Rodri flashes a header over from a corner, then Porro aims a long-range riser towards the top right. Gunn paws it over for another corner.

27 min: During a long stoppage so Pino can get the benefit of the magic sponge, VAR checks Robertson’s challenge, isn’t interested, and play restarts … but not before the referee books the Scotland captain. No free kick, so it’s a bit strange. Then again, Robertson was asking for trouble by checking his run so Pino ran into his raised shoulder, and you’ve seen players walk for less. Swings and roundabouts.

25 min: Pino and Robertson compete for a loose ball down the Spanish right. Robertson stops and gently raises his right shoulder, clipping Pino flush in the coupon. There’s not much in it, but Pino goes down hard. Robertson is not impressed with the reaction, and accordingly effs and jeffs with great feeling.

23 min: Hickey, on the halfway line, plays an absurd looping ball back towards Gunn on the edge of the Scotland box. When it eventually comes back to earth, Gunn can only slice out for a throw deep in Scottish territory. A cross comes in from the left. Joselu misses it. No worries! Another comes in from the right, and Joselu crashes a header off the crossbar! Nearly the equaliser, and all the trouble was self-inflicted. Not sure what Hickey was thinking about back there.

22 min: Spain knock it around patiently, 35 yards from the Scotland goal. Eventually the ball’s won back, McGregor sticking in a toe, McTominay calmly rolling it back for Gunn to clear. The home crowd appreciate the effort.

20 min: Gaya curls in from the left. Joselu rises highest, six yards out, and powers a header straight at Gunn. Either side of the keeper and that would have posed Scotland a problem.

19 min: Another 1980s throwback as Dykes hares after a long punt down the middle. Garcia guides it back to Kepa without too much fuss.

17 min: Martinez clanks McGinn upside the head, while Merino slides in hard on Christie. Then Joselu skittles Dykes in unceremonious fashion. Spain have clearly decided their response to falling behind should involve putting it about a bit. It’s not always been tiki-taka or bust, you know.

15 min: Scotland are so close to doubling their lead. McGinn uses his strength to turn in the centre circle and roll a ball forward for Christie, who romps into space. Spain allow him to make it to the edge of their box, but he whistles his low shot inches wide of the right-hand post. Kepa wouldn’t have got to that had Christie’s shot been on target.

13 min: Ceballos drops deep and slips a clever pass down the inside-left channel for Oyarzabal, bursting into the box and clear of the Scotland back line. Oyarzabal miscontrols and the ball flies out for a goal kick. Scotland breathe again, because had he trapped it, as he should have, he’d have been one on one with Gunn. He looked onside.

11 min: Oyarzabal and Gaya nearly open Scotland up with some cute triangulation down the left. Not quite, but for the first time this evening, Spain put a dangerous-looking move together.

9 min: That’s three goals for Scott McTominay in about 12 minutes of football, when you factor in his late double against Cyprus. Hats off also to Porteous, who started the move with a ball upfield to Dykes.

GOAL! Scotland 1-0 Spain (McTominay 7)

6 min: Dykes nicks the ball in midfield, and lays off to Hickey on the right. Hickey doesn’t have many options, and you half expect him to blooter a long ball upfield just to get out of bother. But he pings infield, McGinn, McTominay and Porteous confidently retaining possession and Scotland recycle. A good sign.

4 min: Other than that, it’s a fairly staccato start to the match. Neither side yet to properly settle.

2 min: Christie and McGinn shuttle the ball down the middle for Dykes, who takes a whack from the left-hand edge of the D. Porro blocks well. A decent early showing by the hosts.

Spain get the ball rolling, and knock it around the back. They cop some pantomime abuse. Imagine Kate Forbes’ response to Humza Yousaf’s offer of the Rural Affairs gig, only more polite.

Here come the teams! Scotland aren’t wearing their super-retro nae-logo 150th centenary shirt, but their usual still-super-retro mid-80s effort is still very pretty. No red socks today, though, what with the visitors resplendent in that very same colour. Then the anthems, both of which are corkers. Once hands are clasped, coins are tossed, and pennants exchanged, we’ll be underway.

Steve Clarke, calm and considered, speaks to Viaplay Sports. “It’s what you play football for, to be involved in games and nights like this … we’re certainly looking forward to the game … we’ve got a good squad of players and you have to utilise them at the right time … the changes were already in my mind before [McTominay and Christie] did what they did on Saturday … you have to freshen the team a little bit but not change it too much … it’s a challenge, Spain are one of the top European sides … you have to trust in your ability and play almost the perfect game … hopefully if enough people in the team do that, you get the right result … we have to be switched on …if we play to our very best, hopefully that’ll be enough to get us something good tonight.”

A belated happy birthday to Joselu. The Espanyol striker, formerly of Newcastle United and Stoke City, turned 33 yesterday. He makes his first international start tonight, having come off the bench for his debut against Norway on Saturday to score two late goals in as many minutes.

That weekend cameo saw Joselu become the oldest Spanish debutant since Ferenc Puskas, who was 34 when he first turned out for Spain against Morocco in 1961. Puskas never scored in four appearances while representing Spain as a naturalised citizen, though he did manage to notch 84 goals in 85 matches during his time with Hungary, so his international legacy wasn’t in too much danger of being tarnished.

Tonight’s other game in Group A has just finished: Georgia 1-1 Norway. Alexander Sørloth gave Norway the lead on 15 minutes; Georges Mikautadze equalised on the hour. Then the ball dropped to an unmarked Martin Ødegaard … and oh my. A decent result for Scotland.

Scotland make three changes to the starting XI named for the 3-0 win over Cyprus. Lyndon Dykes replaces the injured Che Adams up front, while Scott McTominay reaps the reward of his quickfire two-goal contribution against the Cypriots by starting in midfield alongside Ryan Christie. Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Jack are the pair to make way, both dropping to the bench.

Spain make eight changes to their starting team in the wake of their 3-0 victory over Norway. Kepa, Rodri and Mikel Merino are the only players to keep their place. Some instant reaction to that from our man in the press box can be found below.

The teams

Preamble