YFS
Scotland went into their last group stage game of the Toulon Tournament knowing that a win against a solid Indonesia side would all but secure entry into the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time since 1994. Despite the underdogs taking the lead through Hanis Saghara Putra, Archie Gemmill’s side found two goals courtesy of Rangers striker Ryan Hardie to set up a semi-final clash against arch rivals England.
Scotland controlled the early proceedings of the game, as expected, and were inches way from a dream start in the 8th minute. After a lovely through ball, Aiden Nesbitt found himself through on goal with just Muahammad Riyandi in the Indonesian goal to beat, but his effort struck the post and was cleared.
Craig Wighton was next to come close for the favourites midway through the first half after he was able to round Riyandi and find an angle to shoot, unfortunately for him though, the angle was too tight and he could only find the side netting.
The first goal only looked like a matter of Scotland, but in the 24th minute, it didn’t come the way they were expecting.
After some questionable defending where Scotland failed to clear their lines, Putra Saghara was onto the loose ball in a flash and managed to steer a low shot beyond the grasp of Jack Ruddy to put Scotland’s chances of group qualification in peril. A real shock was on the cards.
Hardie came close to levelling the scores instantly as he got past Riyandi, but his strike was placed wide of the post.
In the 33rd minute Hardie – who had a loan spell at Raith Rovers lasts season – went one better. On the edge of the box, it seemed as if a shooting chance was unlikely, but Hardie thought otherwise, as he curled an effort right into the top corner well beyond the reach of Riyandi to level the scoring. Despite being slightly shocked by the goal, Scotland were able to hit back with the perfect response.
The score could have swung in the Scots favour barely a minute before half-time as Wighton did his best to imitate his striker partner and curled a decent effort from just outside the box, but Riyandi – not for the first time – was alert to produce an acrobatic save, before parrying away a solid shot from Adam Frizzell.