Last minute win against Denmark
Drama in Glasgow: Scots celebrate World Cup qualification
Updated 11/18/2025 – 11:02 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Scotland celebrates an early dream goal, Denmark counters with a minority. But the home team has the last word in a dramatic final phase.
Scotland secured a direct ticket to the 2026 World Cup in the dramatic “final” in Glasgow. With their late goals, Kieran Tierney (90+3) and Kenny McLean (90+9) gave the Scots a 4-2 (1-0) win against Denmark on Tuesday evening and thus their first finals appearance since 1998. The Danes have to take the detour via the European play-offs.
A draw would have been enough for Denmark to qualify directly – but their plans were thrown out the window in the third minute when Scott McTominay scored a stunning overhead kick. In fact, Denmark had only found itself in the position of having to score a point in Glasgow after a very annoying 2-2 draw against Belarus three days earlier.
After the early shock, Denmark was significantly stronger without Wolfsburg’s Christian Eriksen and Jonas Wind; the Scots barely got out of their own half with 20 percent possession of the ball. However, captain Andy Robertson and his colleagues defended with passion, threw themselves into every shot and survived the break.
In the second half, Robertson awarded a penalty – Rasmus Höjlund (57th), McTominay’s teammate at SSC Napoli, converted. After yellow-red against Rasmus Kristensen (61′), Scotland made it 2-1 through Lawrence Shankland (78′), Patrick Dorgu (82′) countered for Denmark. Tierney ultimately became the Scottish hero, while McLean removed all doubts with his goal from the halfway line.
In the European play-offs, 16 national teams will play in four four-team tournaments at the end of March for the last World Cup tickets. The draw will take place on Thursday at the headquarters of the world association FIFA in Zurich.