No offence to Lawrence Shankland, but we’ll quickly brush his goal aside. From a yard out he stabbed Lewis Ferguson’s corner over the line to put Scotland’s fans back in dreamland, albeit briefly.
Denmark equalised quickly and there was a gut-wrenching wait until Kieran Tierney struck another absolute screamer.
The game was into the second minute of added-on time – and Scotland seemed set to be condemned to the torment of the play-offs – when the ball fell to the makeshift right-back, who curled a beauty past Celtic colleague Kasper Schmeichel.
A goal from the heavens, from a man who has been through so much since the summer of 2024 when his Euro campaign was cut short by a hamstring injury.
“It couldn’t have happened to a more favourable player going through such hard times,” Stewart said. “That is just pure class.”
And head coach Clarke was pretty happy with the identity of the man who scored the goal that took Scotland to the top of the mountain.
“I spoke to Kieran before the first game,” said Clarke. “He’s a key player for me, one of my men.
“I said ‘listen, Aaron Hickey can’t do back-to-back games, I can see you coming on at right-back and doing very well for us’.
“I’m not sure I envisioned the goal – but when it was rolling back to him on his left foot, I knew he would score.”
