Scotland down to 10 men as Switzerland lead at the break at Hampden

What happened

In a UEFA Nations League League B fixture at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland were reduced to ten men in the first half and went into the break trailing Switzerland 0-1. It was new Scotland head coach Sebastien Pocognoli's first home match in charge.

The red card and the goal

In the 10th minute, referee Nenad Minakovic initially awarded a penalty after defender Jack Hendry brought down Switzerland's Dan Ndoye, who had broken clear. Following a VAR review, the spot-kick was overturned because the foul was judged to have occurred just outside the box, but Hendry's card was upgraded from yellow to red, leaving Scotland a man short. From the resulting free-kick in the 12th minute, Switzerland's Ricardo Rodriguez curled a left-footed effort from the edge of the area past goalkeeper Angus Gunn to make it 0-1.

First-half action

Despite their numerical advantage, Switzerland kept pushing forward: both Zeki Amdouni and Dan Ndoye tested Gunn, who kept the score down. After the red card, Scotland's coaching staff made a change, bringing on defender Stephen Welsh for forward Kieron Bowie. Pocognoli himself was booked for dissent, with referee Minakovic unpopular among the Hampden crowd. According to the BBC, mid-match statistics from Opta put Switzerland's win probability at 89.1%, a draw at 9.4%, and a Scotland win at just 1.5%.

Context

Scotland had opened their Nations League campaign with a goalless draw against Slovenia and have now gone three matches without scoring, having previously lost to Brazil and Morocco. Switzerland, by contrast, thrashed North Macedonia 3-0 in their opener — Amdouni scored twice and Remo Freuler once — playing without captain Granit Xhaka. Goal.com had predicted a 0-2 Switzerland win before kick-off, tipping Amdouni and Ndoye as likely scorers. As reported by the BBC/Yahoo, Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin skipped the pre-match press conference due to 'hearing problems,' with assistant coach Davide Calla standing in for him. The match was played alongside several other Nations League fixtures, including Spain against Croatia in Seville.