Super Souttar

IT was a dream night for John Souttar making his return to the Scotland squad with a vital opener at Hampden.

The Hearts defender has gone through a lot to make it back to the national stage after injury plagued a year of his career.

But he announced his return in style with a tremendous performance against the Euro 2020 semi-finalists.

Surely it'll keep him in the Scotland squad going forward, and maybe even earn him a starting place for the all-important play-offs.

Either way, Souttar will be delighted with his night's work and will be a Scotland international for years to come.

Formation thoughts

Much was made of how Scotland would cope without Lyndon Dykes, but Steve Clarke proved his side can handle matches without the striker with a pair of impressive wins.

The Australian-born hitman acted as a focal point for the national team and has been a key player under Clarke. But the performances of Che Adams as a lone striker may get the manager thinking.

His formation tinkering paid off as he instead went with a lone-striker supported by Ryan Christie in-behind. And while the win over Moldova might not have convinced him to stick with that formation going forward, the dominance over Denmark might just prompt a debate among the coaching staff.

Play-off preference

Scotland did what they were asked to do, secure a seeded play-off spot. It should, in theory, mean a slightly easier route to the World Cup.

Seeding means Scotland will play their first-match at home which could be a major boost given the raucous party scenes in Hampden at full-time.

But there are still some formidable sides standing in the way, with the draw for the play-offs scheduled for next Friday.

Currently Portugal, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Poland join Scotland as seeded teams for the play-offs. With Wales, North Macedonia, Turkey, Finland, Austria and the Czech Republic not seeded.

It's been a major success to book the play-off slot, but much work lies ahead to seal World Cup qualification.