Alan Brazil labels Scotland performance ‘rank’ despite crucial World Cup qualifying win over Greece

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Scotland may be heading towards a World Cup berth, but quite literally no one was impressed by their win over Greece.Steve Clarke’s side beat Greece 3-1 in their qualifier on Thursday night, despite being out-shot 15-8 and out-possessed with only 33 per cent of the ball.Clarke was completely out-coached by Greece’s Ivan Jovanovic but still managed to winGettyScotland even went behind to Liverpool-owned Roma loanee Kostas Tsimikas, but the 62nd minute setback appeared to wake them up as Ryan Christie equalised shortly after, before Lewis Ferguson and Lyndon Dykes scored as the hosts secured an important three points.Should things go their way elsewhere in group C, Scotland could book at least a play-off spot for the 2026 World Cup with a win against Belarus next time up.That could see them head towards a first World Cup since 1998, but fans aren’t exactly buzzing, including talkSPORT’s Alan Brazil.“I must admit, I went to sleep at 2-1 and I was delighted when I heard 3-1, but phwoar at half-time I thought, ‘There’s no chance,’” he said.“I’ve got to say it, we were rank. The boos were ringing out at half-time. Greece totally outmoved us, outpassed us and outplayed us, I never thought it would be like that, I thought there would be blood and thunder but no.“Scotland just defended behind the ball and sat there while Greece were popping it about and then they were getting it wide and slaughtering us.“What a chance they missed, right in front of goal, I’m not saying it would’ve been different, but it could’ve been.“It is, but Clarke is no mug, he’ll have gone to bed last night thinking, ‘How did we get away with that,’ I don’t think he’ll admit it, but he must be. “Its got to be better against Belarus, it has to be, I was gobsmacked last night, it was shocking, it was murder.”Steve Clarke’s take on Scotland 3-1 GreeceClarke didn’t exactly talk up his side post-match, but did try to play down Greece’s performance.Clarke was full of relief when the game eventually turned aroundGettyScotland were behind on every stat except the one that matters“It was a difficult first half, but I thought we showed a great attitude again,” he said. “Some people forget football’s over 90 minutes – we had to dig in during the first half and they created one big chance with a ball across the goal and the boy should’ve made contact at the far post. “We got lucky on that one, but the rest of the time was against a very good Greek side, we had to defend ever so well and work hard, we spoke about one or two things at half time, but it didn’t seem to change the pattern of the game too much. “Once the Greeks scored it seemed to take the shackles off and we found an extra yard of pace, the press was better, we looked more of a threat going forward.”Super subs or the job centre for Scotland’s Clarke?Scotland great Charlie Mulgrew went even harsher on the performance, but gave Clarke more credit than he gave himself for the turnaround.“I thought we were terrible, I cannot believe we won that game last night, I’m still in shock,” he told talkSPORT. Mulgrew thinks Clarke deserves some credit for his subsGetty“I’d rather play like that and win the game than be brilliant and lose because we’ve done that plenty of times, but I’m just amazed.”Turning to Clarke he added: “Ben Doak coming off, I was thinking why are we taking our best attacking player off at 1-0 down? “And then Christie scored so it shows how much I know and why I’m sat here. Obviously Clarke’s seen something and the goals come from set pieces.”talkSPORT’s David Tanner reserved any compliments though, even suggesting that without a comeback Clarke could’ve been in serious trouble.“It was among the worst Scotland performances of Steve Clarke’s 71 games in charge,” he said. “He’s equalled Craig Brown’s record for being the longest serving manager but half an hour it looked like he would struggle to make 72 games, it was that bad.”