It's another trip to Tannadice tonight as Scotland Under-21 take on Belgium Under-21 in what is the second of two games at the Dundee United home stadium this week, the other being against Kazakhstan (Which finished 2-1 to the Young Scots).
Today's starting eleven featured three changes to Scot Gemmill's side after the recent victory to Kazakhstan. Cieran Slicker, Jack Burroughs and Ben Williamson came in for Archie Mair, Harrison Ashby and Dapo Mebude. With the rest of the side unchanged apart from that.
And despite a vibrant performance, the Young Scots fell to group leaders, Belgium.
First half -
Not long after the start Scotland applied pressure straight away, with Glenn Middleton a matter of inches away from scoring after he was played through behind the defence, after being narrowly pushed wide by the Belgium defence, the St Johnstone winger struck just narrowly wide of the post. Similarly, at the other end of the park, Belgium's Lois Openda struck an effort just wide of the post too. Over the first 20 minutes of the game Belgium added pressure and dominance, with chance after chance with Manchester City keeper, Cieran Slicker, stepping up to save a number of them and keep the Young Scots in the game.
Eventually, a first huge chance of the game comes when PSV's Yorbe Vertessen fires the ball over the bar after being played in behind the defence from Openda. Not long after that Josh Doig brought brought Vertessen down in the box for a Belgium penalty, also resulting in Doig going into the referee's book. From the resulting penalty, Openda stepped up to send Slicker the wrong way to put Belgium one up. Soon after, the whistle was blown for half-time with Scotland trailing by Openda's penalty goal.
Second Half -
Shortly into the second half, and League Cup Semi Finalist, Glenn Middleton, was forced off and replaced by Dapo Mebude. Middleton was presumed to have suffered a hamstring strain, potentially forcing him out of Saturdays Semi Final clash between St Johnstone and Celtic. Although he wasn't the only injury in this game, and not even the only injury from that upcoming semi-final tie, with Celtic defender Stephen Welsh also coming off injured too.
Minutes later, Lewis Fiorini picked the ball up around the penalty mark and shot, his shot was then brilliantly saved by Belgium keeper, Lammens to keep Belgium ahead. Soon after Fiorini had another involvement when he spun round the defender before being clattered to the ground, causing mass penalty calls, which were soon denied from the referee. Scotland pushed for an equaliser, but after sloppily losing the ball, Belgium hit them on the counter-attack with Openda finding the ball on his right foot, his eventual shot is tremendously blocked by Slicker who rushed out his goal to deny the Belgian forward. Not long after, Fiorini found himself presented with yet another opportunity. The Manchester City starlet's shot was narrowly palmed away by Lammens just only 15 minutes from the end.
With only literal minutes to go, Belgium find their second of the game when Kana found on-running midfielder, Raskin who blasted his shot from close range past Slicker into the back of the net to confirm Belgium's 100% start in the Group. Minutes later the referee blew for full-time, giving Scotland plenty to worry about over their qualification hopes for the group.
Although it was a two nil loss, Scotland played fairly well for a team that never scored, for example Scotland dominated the game with Dribbles, Possession Lost and, both Aerial Duels won and 1-on-1 Duels won.
Despite conceding two goals, Scotland were defensively sound. Topping the tackles, interceptions and Clearances. Meanwhile Cieran Slicker chipped in with 7 saves over the whole match, compared to Lammens 2 saves.
My Man Of The Match :-
My personal Man Of The Match goes to Belgium and Vitesse (on loan from Club Brugge) forward,
Lois Openda. Although the striker scored the opening goal of the game, he also contributed with some excellent runs and impressive passing play.
This leaves Scotland second bottom of the group, having lost two and won one of their opening four games in the group. Up next, at the end of March 2022, Scotland face Kazakhstan and Turkey in a crucial double header.
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