Scotland are now just one game away from their first major finals since 1998 after a penalty shoot-out victory over Israel at Hampden Park last night.
The Scots now meet Serbia away from home on 12 November in a winner takes all match to decide who qualifies for EURO 2020.
After a nervous 120 minutes where both sides passed up chances to win the game, former Hibs’ player John McGinn bravely volunteered to take the opening penalty against his former team mate Ofir Marciano.
Marciano had saved and conceded a penalty against Hamilton in his previous game stood between the Scots and glory.
McGinn fired his penalty low to the keeper’s right and Marciano managed to get a hand to the strike but the ball squirmed under his body.
David Marshall saved Zehavi’s opening spot kick then Callum McGregor, Scott McTominay, Lawrence Shankland and Kenny McLean all converted their spot-kicks to secure a memorable victory.
Serbia defeated Norway 2-1 in extra time in Oslo to secure the other play-off spot.
Scotland now must get ready Sunday’s visit of Slovakia to Hampden in the Nations League, then the arrival of the Czechs on Wednesday.
After the game McGinn said: “We’ll take it. It was a horrible game, a nervy one.Without the Tartan Army you know it’s going to be tough.
“It’s really tough for everyone in Scotland right now and hopefully that’s given them a lift
“We’ve still got a lot to work on. We’re not naive enough to think it was as a great performance, but these games are nervy and there’s a lot of pressure on you.
“We’ve now given ourselves a chance to get this country to a major tournament which has been far too long, and hopefully we can be the group of players to do that
“We could have easily crumbled but we were so determined to get over the line and credit to David Marshall, he came up with a big save to get us through.”
Scotland: Marshall, O’Donnell (McLean, 113), Robertson, McTominay, Gallagher, Cooper, McGinn, Jack (Fraser, 83), McGregor, Dykes (Paterson, 91), McBurnie (Shankland, 72)
Unused substitutes: McLaughlin, Porteous, Fleck, Taylor, McCrorie
Israel: Marciano, Dasa, Yeina, Elhamed, Tibi, Golasa (Elmkies, 100), Natcho (Abu Fani, 68), Solomon, Bitton, Zahavi, Dabbur (Weissman, 83)
Unused substitutes: Harush, Menachem, Dgani, Lavi, Seba, Karzev, Arad, Abu Hanna, Nitzan.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
