Scotland well beaten by Belgium as Christian Benteke and Vincent Kompany strike

Scotland's fading hopes of making the World Cup finals in 2014 were surely dashed as they were beaten 2-0 by a quality Belgium side.

Levein made one change from the side who lost to Wales, with Wigan midfielder James McArthur drafted into the starting line-up in place of Scott Brown.

Dangerous

Belgium looked dangerous right from the first whistle and a Gary Caldwell error allowed Dries Mertens to burst into the box. But goalkeeper McGregor came to the rescue and blocked superbly at both attempts by Mertens to deny the home side the opener early on. Fortunately for the Scots, McGregor was on top form and he also saved well from Chadli at the near post before diving bravely to the feet of the same player to snuff out another threat. After a period of intense pressure from the Belgians, a mis-hit shot from James Morrison caused more problems than it should have for Courtois. The goalkeeper looked more convincing when he prevented a curling free-kick from Maloney from finding the top corner. At the other end, Chadli was given enough space to unleash a thunderous strike from 25 yards that whistled inches past the post, before Dembele and Mertens both saw efforts fall wide of target. With half-time approaching, Scotland threatened from another free-kick, with Commons forcing a decent save from the keeper on this occasion.

Breakthrough

Both sides made a change at the interval, with Jamie Mackie replacing Commons and Dembele making way for Hazard. The Belgians hit the woodwork within five minutes of the restart when Benteke threw himself in front of Toby Alderweireld's cross only to see his header clip the crossbar on the way over. Kevin Mirallas was thrown into the action for Mertens, before McGregor was shown the first yellow card of the game for time wasting on the hour mark. The breakthrough came for the Belgians after 69 minutes when Benteke bulleted home a header at the back post, eventually beating the impressive McGregor. Belgium doubled their lead a minute later when Kompany collected from Hazard on the edge of the area and rifled an unstoppable shot into the back of the net. It was a crushing blow for the Scots, who replaced Steven Fletcher with Kenny Miller, with just over 15 minutes to go. Blackpool's Matt Phillips was then handed his competitive debut, confirming his allegiance to a Scotland side whose slim hopes of reaching the World Cup finals were, by then, left in tatters.

Belgium	Team Statistics	Scotland
2	Goals	0
0	1st Half Goals	0
8	Shots on Target	3
11	Shots off Target	2
6	Blocked Shots	0
6	Corners	3
15	Fouls	10
5	Offsides	0
1	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
91.8	Passing Success	77
7	Tackles	15
71.4	Tackles Success	80
65.4	Possession	34.6
58.2	Territorial Advantage	41.8
587	Total Passes	305
36	Total Crosses	13
116	Lost Balls	133
56	Recoveries	39
67.2	1st Half Poss.	32.8
64.2	2nd Half Poss.	35.8