Skip to content

All the news that matters, in plain English.

Latest
  1. Hurricane Polo re-strengthens to Category 5, forecast to make landfall in Baja California Sur on Monday
  2. India delivers right of reply to Shehbaz Sharif's UNGA speech — warns "terrorism by Pakistan will have consequences"
  3. Liverpool reappoint Julian Ward as sporting director after Hughes exits for Al-Hilal
  4. Magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia; no tsunami threat
  5. NYPD arrests two men seen emerging from New York City manhole near Upper East Side hotel
  6. Pro-Palestine Action group plans mass vigil at Labour conference in Liverpool
  7. Pentagon HR breach exposed unencrypted personal data of up to 4 million US military personnel
  8. SpaceX lines up Crew-13 and Falcon Heavy NROL-97 on a same-day Oct 1 doubleheader

Sport

Scotland held 0-0 by Slovenia as Pocognoli starts reign with a draw

Sebastien Pocognoli's first game as Scotland head coach ended in a goalless Nations League Group B1 draw in Ljubljana, with Oli McBurnie and Kieron Bowie missing the best chances.

By Tom Ellery · · 1 min read

Scotland began the Sebastien Pocognoli era with a goalless draw against Slovenia in their Nations League Group B1 opener in Ljubljana on Saturday.

The 39-year-old Belgian head coach, appointed in August as Steve Clarke’s successor after spells with Union Saint-Gilloise and Monaco, refreshed the side and handed debuts to Swansea defender Steven Welsh and Sevilla striker Robbie Ure in an attack-minded setup.

Scotland were fortunate not to fall behind in a sluggish first half. Slovenia striker Andraz Sporar fired home from the edge of the box after seven minutes only for provider Danijel Sturm to be ruled offside, and Sporar then missed from close range in the 14th minute. Vanja Drkusic’s header from an Erik Janza corner clipped the outside of a post.

The visitors rallied after the break. Wing-back Aaron Hickey’s powerful drive was blocked before Ure’s low drive from 20 yards beat Jan Oblak but struck the outside of a post. In the second half Oblak smothered a Billy Gilmour effort after a neat one-two with Oli McBurnie, then denied the 30-year-old — winning his 17th cap, his first in five years, and still seeking a first international goal — and substitute Kieron Bowie, who missed the best chance of the match one-on-one with the goalkeeper after replacing Ure in the 67th minute.

Around 1,000 travelling supporters watched the stalemate. Scotland host Switzerland at Hampden on Tuesday before travelling to North Macedonia and then facing Slovenia in Glasgow.

Sources

More on this topic: all Sport stories

Get Flip News by email

This opens your email app — we add you manually. No account, no spam, no third parties.