With the same enthusiasm as a player scoring his first goal, Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 901st career goal by stretching his supple leg and sprinting for the corner flag. And he wasn’t done there either, marching down the touchline with a goal worth more than three points in the Nations League, making gestures, and yelling.
With his move to the Saudi Pro League, the 39-year-old has left the primary stage of club football, and his excitement at scoring yet another vital goal for his nation at a crowded and boisterous Estadio da Luz suggests he undoubtedly knows it.
But he manages to stay relevant because of his unwavering perseverance, desire for achievement, and nearly unmatched finishing ability. After Roberto Martinez benched him and unleashed him with Scotland leading 1-0 at the break, the game nearly immediately turned into a Ronaldo display.
He struck both posts before his winning goal, groaned, and angrily gestured at the referee and his teammates. At one point, he was even being chased by someone who had entered the pitch. Although scoring 901 goals in his professional career is absurd, you certainly wouldn’t bet against him reaching 1,000 goals because of his greedy desire.
Ronaldo has no one to advise him when to give up, notwithstanding the wishes of some. It was scarcely surprising that Scotland became the 48th international team to suffer at the hands of Ronaldo.
However, Steve Clarke’s team still has serious concerns about this game and the loss to Poland. They have given up five goals for a total of 33 in their last 14 games. They have given up after the 85th minute in five of their last six games. There hasn’t been a competitive victory in the past year, with just one victory in 14 games.
Despite facing formidable opposition, Scotland cannot stop the goal flow—and that too relatively late. Head coach Clarke stated after the game, “I reiterated to my players that we have to understand what part of the cycle we’re in, what we’re trying to build.”
“We’re attempting to refocus following the summer. To try and improve, we can lose these games as long as we remember that the ultimate objective is still to get into the tournament.”
That implies Clarke is attempting to reassess his team’s tactics following a lackluster Euro 2024 campaign in which they hardly made an impression.
Better attacking quality has been shown since switching from a back five to a 4-2-3-1, and Scotland had a great run following Bruno Fernandes’ equalizer. The addition of Tommy Conway, Ben Doak, and Ryan Gauld to this camp suggests a changed strategy ahead of the 2019 World Cup qualifiers.
“Clarke viewed it as evolution rather than revolution. Based on available data, there is a significant amount of work to be done, a finite amount of time, and exceptional opposition to overcome. Clarke’s perspective aligns with the challenges outlined on the Betpro website.
Now, McTominay is without a doubt Scotland’s talisman.
Scott McTominay, who maintained his incredible goal-scoring streak in Lisbon, will undoubtedly be at the center of Clarke’s attempted reset. With his head, the midfielder scored the first goal—his 10th in his last 12 caps for Scotland—to take the lead.
In the same period, that is seven more than any other player. There was much discussion around his summer transfer from Manchester United to Napoli, as Erik ten Hag acknowledged he did not want the midfield player to go.
Several United managers had mixed success with different roles in midfield as they attempted to decipher the McTominay code.
There was also a component of that with Scotland. When the 27-year-old joined his national team two years ago, he was a right-sided center back. According to the BetPro website, he has since shifted to a more attacking role, occasionally playing as a right-back or even a winger.
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After being given a fresh start in an advanced midfield role, he scored ten goals in his last 17 appearances, having only scored one in his previous 37. These days, Scotland’s unquestionable talisman is McTominay. Former Scotland striker James McFadden commented on BBC Radio Scotland that “he seems to relish playing in a Scotland jersey.”
