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European Championship Qualification Group I – Tuesday 6 September
Scotland recovered from a penalty miss to beat Lithuania 1-0 at Hampden and keep their slim hopes of reaching Euro 2012 alive.
Scotland: McGregor, Whittaker, Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley (Crainey 70 min), Bannan (Snodgrass 84 min), Morrison (Dorrans 79 min), Cowie, Fletcher, Naismith, Goodwillie.
Substitutes: Gilks, Crainey, Hutton, Hanley, Dorrans, Snodgrass, Forrest.
Lithuania: Karcemarskas, Cesnauskis, Kijanskas (Danilevicius 61 min), Zaliukas, Klimavicius, Radavicius, Labukas (Novikovas 46 min), Semberas, Pilibaitis, Mikoliunas (Beniusis 77 min), Sernas.
Substitutes: Setkus, Panka, Danilevicius, Papsys, Ivaskevicius, Novikovas, Beniusis.
In the must-win clash for Scotland, the home side carved out the first real chance of the match when Bannan’s corner was headed across goal by Bardsley and fell for Berra, but somehow the Wolves defender rifled high and wide from close range. The Scots continued to push forward in the early stages and Bannan and Cowie both went close to opening the scoring.
The hosts were certainly the better side in the opening half and Fletcher tested Karcemarskas with a stinging shot at his near post before Naismith headed over from the resulting corner kick. They should have opened the scoring a minute before half-time when Jakobsson handled in the area, but skipper Fletcher could not find the net from the spot-kick as Karcemarskas guessed correctly to his left.
Scotland did open the scoring however just four minutes after the restart when Goodwillie found Bannan and the Aston Villa man delivered a fine cross from the right to Naismith who connected with a half-volley that smashed off the post and into the back of the net. The away side failed to muster any real chances in the match and it was Scotland who went close late on when Naismith headed over from close range. Scotland held onto the win ahead of next month’s double-header against Liechtenstein and Spain which will determine their fate in Group I.
Tags: Euro 2012 Group I, Lithuania, Scotland, Scotland v Lithuania report
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