Scotland are at the World Cup for the first time since 1998
Image: Keystone
It was a Scottish night for the ages
Image: Keystone
Head coach Steve Clarke (left) celebrates the historic win with his staff
Image: Keystone
Michael Gregoritsch was the match-winner in Vienna
Image: Keystone
The striker came, saw and scored with just under a quarter of an hour to go to make it 1-1
Image: Keystone
Curaçao celebrates its greatest footballing success
Image: Keystone
Dick Advocaat was national coach of South Korea during the 2006 World Cup and met Switzerland with the Asians in the preliminary round
Image: Keystone
Scotland are at the World Cup for the first time since 1998
Image: Keystone
It was a Scottish night for the ages
Image: Keystone
Head coach Steve Clarke (left) celebrates the historic win with his staff
Image: Keystone
Michael Gregoritsch was the match-winner in Vienna
Image: Keystone
The striker came, saw and scored with just under a quarter of an hour to go to make it 1-1
Image: Keystone
Curaçao celebrates its greatest footballing success
Image: Keystone
Dick Advocaat was national coach of South Korea during the 2006 World Cup and met Switzerland with the Asians in the preliminary round
Image: Keystone
On the last day of World Cup qualifying before the play-offs, football is once again writing wonderful stories. A tour from Glasgow via Vienna to Kingston.
19.11.2025, 12:38
19.11.2025, 12:49
SDA
The biggest game of their lives
Scotland's qualifying campaign has not been a treat - at least not until Tuesday night. Last month, the national team were booed off the pitch after an arduous 2-1 defeat to Belarus at Glasgow's Hampden Park. Captain John McGinn had reacted to the fans' annoyance with some exasperation: "Would they rather we swept teams off their feet and lost the Scottish way?"
In this century, Scotland had always failed to qualify for the World Cup, often with flags flying. Tuesday night was a different story. The Scots battled, as they always do, and they shone, as they rarely do. Scott McTominay made it 1-0 with an overhead kick in the opening stages, Kieran Tierney scored the much-needed 3-2 with a beautiful flick in the 93rd minute, and the crowning 4-2 came from a shot from the halfway line by Kenny McLean, who plays for Norwich in England's second division and hadn't scored in over a year and a half.
The BBC reported how one Scottish fan described the match and their first World Cup appearance since 1998 as compensation for 30 years of glorious failure. For the British TV broadcaster, it was the greatest game of their lives for an entire generation.
At the height of the rollercoaster ride
Michael Gregoritsch celebrated the "best day of my footballing life". "We have made history. There is no better feeling. It's unbelievable, unbelievable," the Austrian scorer of the decisive 1:1 against Bosnia-Herzegovina cheered in front of the "Servus TV" cameras after the memorable match. Austria is back at the World Cup for the first time since 1998 and owes it to the striker, who reliably scores his goals but describes his career as a rollercoaster ride.
It was not necessarily to be expected that Gregoritsch would be on a high again. Since this summer, the former Freiburg player has been playing for Brøndby in Denmark and has been on the substitutes' bench more often than he would have liked. Even on Tuesday evening in Vienna, he only came into the game after an hour. He is not the most spectacular player, "I'm one of the slowest". The atypical attacker with the big fighter's heart characteristically celebrates his goal with a grip on his belly fat. When asked about this after the match, Gregoritsch said without going into detail: "Sometimes it's not just important how high your fat is."
From 100 to 10,000
Curaçao proved in Kingston, Jamaica, a 16-hour flight from Vienna, that size isn't always everything. The Caribbean state, which is slightly smaller than Obwalden in terms of area (444 square kilometers) and slightly larger than the canton of Zug in terms of population (approx. 155,000), made it to the World Cup as the smallest participant in its almost 100-year history with a goalless draw in Jamaica.
As part of the Dutch kingdom, Curaçao, which has been independent in football terms since 2010, has a slight advantage when it comes to selecting coaches. Guus Hiddink and Patrick Kluivert were followed in 2024 by another star coach from Holland, Dick Advocaat. The 78-year-old took the team to a new level with FCZ player Livano Comenencia and will compete in his third World Cup as head coach next summer after those with the Netherlands (1994) and South Korea (2006).
For family reasons, Advocaat was in the Netherlands at the time and therefore missed the first celebrations on the island. He and his team had previously laid the foundations for this, as he told Voetbal International: "It's really very special to be part of this and to see what we've achieved with football on this island. When we started, there were 100 people in the stadium. Now there are always 10,000."
