Portugal 2-1 Scotland: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo rages on to eclipse Scott McTominay heroics’

Scotland became the 48th international side to suffer at Ronaldo’s feet, which was hardly a surprise.

But over this game and the Poland defeat there are still areas of major concern for Steve Clarke’s side. Five goals conceded makes it a total of 33 against in their past 14 games.

In five of their past six matches they have conceded after the 85th minute. It is now one win in 14 games and no competitive win in the last year.

Against top opposition, Scotland cannot seem to stem the tide of goals. And late ones, at that.

“I reiterated to my players that we have to understand what part of the cycle we’re in, what we’re trying to build,” head coach Clarke said afterwards.

“We’re trying to re-adjust after the summer. We can lose these matches to try and build and make sure that the end goal, as always, is to qualify for the tournament.”

That suggests Clarke is trying to recalibrate how his team plays after a disappointing Euro 2024 campaign during which they barely fired a shot.

The switch from a back five to a 4-2-3-1 has shown better glimpses of attacking quality, and Scotland had a strong spell after conceding the equaliser to Bruno Fernandes.

The introduction of Ryan Gauld, Ben Doak, and Tommy Conway to this camp also hints at a different approach in preparation for next year’s World Cup qualifiers.

Evolution, not revolution was what Clarke described it as. On the evidence so far there is plenty of work to be done, with limited time to do it and top quality opposition to face.