Scotland v Croatia: Nations League – live

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7 min: Somewhere in the multiverse, Croatia are already 2-0 up thanks to a couple of dozy midfield errors. The hosts need to wake up quicksmart.

5 min: A lethargic Gilmour is skittled off the ball by Kovačić. Hard but fair. The perfectly timed lunge sends Croatia on another bonus attack. Kramarić can’t make space to shoot from a position on the left. The ball’s shuttled right to Luka Sučić, who leans back and hoicks over. Scotland get away with another big mistake.

4 min: No idea what McLean was trying to achieve there. He was under no pressure whatsoever.

3 min: McLean plays a comically awful backpass straight to Kramarić, who spares the Scotland midfielder’s blushes by dragging a weak shot wide right.

2 min: A slow start to the game. The YouTube coverage – disgracefully, this isn’t on UK television – is a bit jittery. Unless I’ve had too much coffee. “I seem to recall Flash Gordon proclaiming ‘The game’s lost! Stop your attack on Earth and I’ll spare your life!’,” reminisces Justin Kavanagh. “I’m not sure Luka Modric is going to buy that argument in his chequerboard spacesuit.”

Croatia get the ball rolling. “I’ll stay tuned to find out how Flash Gordon fares against Modric the Merciless,” promises comic-book guy Peter Oh.

The teams are out! Scotland in windswept and interesting dark blue, Croatia in that iconic red-and-white checkerboard. Everyone looking damn fine. Hampden is wet, but Hampden is happening. Roar! We’ll be off in a couple of minutes. “The Flash Gordon theme is indeed excellent,” agrees Scott Blair. “Far be it from me to suggest that there must have been a recent complete overhaul of the SFA ‘sense of humour’ committee. Mind you, from what I recall of watching the exploits of the original Flash at the, ahem, cinema in the early 70s ... he always left you in impossible jeopardy when the episode finished. So that’s all good.”

A reminder of how Group A1 looks going into its final double-header. Nothing’s decided yet, other than Portugal and Croatia being safe from automatic relegation. What we do know is that should Poland’s result in Portugal tonight better Scotland’s against Croatia, the Scots will be relegated to League B. Scotland can in theory still finish in second spot, but for that to happen, they’d need to at least match Croatia’s earlier 2-1 win over them, then hope all the pieces land jam side up on Monday evening as well. Probably best not to get too far ahead of ourselves by wrestling with that set of probabilities just yet.

1. Portugal P4 W3 D1 L0 F7 A3 Pts 10

2. Croatia P4 W2 D1 L1 F7 A6 Pts 7

3. Poland P4 W1 D1 L2 F7 A9 Pts 4

4. Scotland P4 W0 D1 L3 F4 A7 Pts 1

The cover of tonight’s programme features Craig Gordon rendered in the style of an old-school comic-book hero. It looks good, it’s a witty conceit, and Gordon, still going at 41 after serving Scotland well in 77 previous appearances, is most certainly deserving of the honour and attention. But you do have to wonder whether the programme editor is playing fast and loose with the Football Gods, given that should anything happen to Gordon this evening, Steve Clarke will be forced to send on a debutant in either Robby McCrorie or Cieran Slicker. McCrorie, 26, has 12 appearances for Kilmarnock this season to his name, having just ended a frustrating spell at Rangers; Slicker, 22, has two League Cup appearances for his current club Ipswich on his CV, plus five EFL Trophy outings for Manchester City U21s and another for Rochdale. Should either be called upon tonight, we could have the most heartwarming rags-to-riches substitute-goalie story since Nigel Spink in the 1982 European Cup final on our hands. God speed, one and all.

Tonight’s Scotland XI is infused with a tincture o’Tees: Middlesbrough striker Tommy Conway, with five Championship goals to his name this season already, makes his first start for his country, while in-form club-mate Ben Doak is there from the off for a third game in a row. Conway is the only change from the team that started the goalless draw with Portugal last month, taking the place of the absent Torino striker Ché Adams. John McGinn, who has been in and out of the Aston Villa side recently, is perhaps surprisingly only on the bench.

The teams

Scotland: Gordon, Ralston, Souttar, Hanley, Robertson, Gilmour, McLean, Doak, McTominay, Christie, Conway.
Subs: Slicker, McCrorie, McGinn, Dykes, Shankland, Taylor, Barron, Porteous, McKenna, Armstrong, Gauld, Devlin.

Croatia: Kotarski, Jakić, Šutalo, Ćaleta-Car, Gvardiol, Modrić, Kovačić, Baturina, Petar Sučić, Luka Sučić, Kramarić.
Subs: Labrović, Ivušić, Pongračić, Moro, Pašalić, Vlašić, Perišić, Pašalić, Oršić, Sosa, Pjaca, Matanović.

Referee: Orel Tsvika Grinfeeld (Israel)
VAR: Ziv Adler (Israel)

Preamble

Four matches in Group A1 have led to three defeats and one draw, but Scotland aren’t done just yet. They may be on an all-time-worst run of ten competitive fixtures without a win, six of those games lost, but they haven’t been that bad in this Nations League campaign. They’ve performed well in patches against three teams of a much higher rank; they’ve suffered more last-gasp heartache than seems strictly fair; and they’ve had absolutely no luck, a commodity even the best teams need to rely on every now and then. A positive result tonight, one that at least matches Poland’s effort in Portugal, will maintain Scotland’s faint hopes of avoiding relegation back to League B. Can they get one against the runners-up in this competition last year? It’s a big ask, but Scotland have pulled off dafter heists in the past. They’ve also gone out of many a competition with barely a whimper, but let’s focus on the positives for now. Kick-off is at 7.45pm GMT. It’s on!