Croatia extend Scotland’s losing streak

Croatia’s Andrej Kramaric condemned Scotland to their worst losing streak in five years as the striker sealed a 2-1 win in the Nations League on Saturday. Steve Clarke’s side took a shock lead through Ryan Christie’s first half goal at the Stadion Maksimir.But Igor Matanovic equalised before the interval and Kramaric bagged the winner midway through the second half. Scotland have lost four successive games for the first time since 2019. They arrived in Zagreb winless in their last eight competitive matches, the longest streak in their history, and that dismal run has now reached nine.Scotland have mustered just one win in their last 15 matches, a 2-0 victory over minnows Gibraltar in June. Having crashed out of Euro 2024 at the group stage, the Scots sit bottom of Nations League Group A1 after defeats against Poland, Portugal and Croatia. In Clarke’s defence, he is dealing a debilitating injury list that denied him the services of James Forrest, Kieran Tierney, Jack Hendry, Tommy Conway, Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson and Lewis Ferguson. Even so, another loss when Portugal visit Hampden Park on Tuesday would add to the pressure on the Scotland boss.Germany win as 10-man Dutch rescue pointOn Friday, Deniz Undav scored twice as Germany defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 to edge closer to the Nations League quarter-finals as 10-man Netherlands rescued a 1-1 draw in Hungary.Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz laid on a backheel for Undav’s opener after 30 minutes in Zenica. The Stuttgart forward then made it two when he turned in Maximilian Mittlestaedt’s cross. Bosnia hit back with 20 minutes remaining when 38-year-old former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko headed in from a corner for his 67th international goal. The win moves Germany onto seven points from three games, two ahead of the Netherlands with the heavyweights facing each other tomorrow in Munich.At the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary and Dutch players, as well as spectators, observed a minute’s silence in memory of former Netherlands great Johan Neeskens who passed away this week at the age of 73. Hungary took the lead in the 32nd minute when Roland Sallai scored with a close-range finish after being teed up by Zsolt Nagy. It was the perfect start to the game for Hungarian coach Marco Rossi who was taking charge of the national team for the 69th time.Hungary were looking at defeating the Dutch in the teams’ first meeting since they were mauled 8-1 in 2013. That prospect brightened when Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was red-carded in the 79th minute. However, four minutes later, the Dutch made a mockery of their one-man disadvantage when Denzel Dumfries headed in a free-kick from Cody Gakpo.Wales squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Iceland in Reykjavik. Tottenham’s Brennan Johnson, scoring for the seventh consecutive game for club and country, and Harry Wilson gave Craig Bellamy’s team a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break but Iceland hit back in the second half.Substitute Logi Tomasson cut the deficit in the 69th minute before Wales goalkeeper Danny Ward allowed a 72nd minute drive from the same player to bounce off his elbow and into the net.Elsewhere on Friday, Sweden let slip a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 in Slovakia, a result which left both teams on seven points from three games but with the Swedes ahead on goal difference in their group. Yasin Ayari and Ken Sema had Sweden 2-0 up after 32 minutes in Bratislava but Slovakia battled back for a point thanks to a brace from David Strelec.Tomas Chory scored twice to give the Czech Republic a 2-0 home win over Albania. The Czechs are level on six points with pool leaders Georgia who lost 1-0 to Ukraine thanks to Mykhailo Mudryk’s 35th-minute cool finish.