Scotsman Scott McTominay scored a fresh double and handed his Spanish hosts a 2-0 win on Tuesday, inflicting their first defeat under new coach Luis de la Fuente in the second round of Group A matches. 2024 European Cup Qualifiers.

McTominay imposed himself as a star for the second consecutive match after scoring two goals in his country’s hat-trick against Cyprus in the first round of the qualifiers to take his tally to 4 goals in two matches.

Scotland topped the group with 6 points, 3 ahead of Spain, while Norway drew 1-1 with Georgia. Fourth place with one point is level with Georgia, who played in their first tournament after missing the first round.

The champion and runner-up of each of the ten groups, apart from the European Nations League and 3 teams from the host country, qualify directly for the finals scheduled for the summer of 2024 in Germany.

European qualifications always deliver 😏

🔥 Performance of the day? #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/1wW3SstUIm

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 28, 2023

The new coach of “La Roja” de la Fuente – who replaced Luis Enrique, who was disappointed to exit the World Cup in Qatar, after their negative 0-3 draw in the penalty shootout against Morocco in the final – made 8 substitutions. He won the match against Norway last Saturday.

At Hampton Park, Scotland opened the scoring after 7 minutes when defender Pedro Boro dropped down the left and took advantage of Andrew Robertson to pass the ball inside the area to McTominay, who slotted past goalkeeper Arizabalaga Kiba.

“La Roja” almost leveled the score, but Joselo’s header, who scored two goals in 106 seconds against Norway, hit the crossbar (23).

Boro fired a right-footed ball 25 meters out that was narrowly saved by goalkeeper Angies Gunn (29) before Scotsman Lyndon Dykes fought off Garcia and won. The ball crossed the goal one minute before the half-time whistle (45 + 1).

McDominay added a second individual goal for him and his team at the beginning of the second half, Kieran Tierney’s pass was intercepted by the Spanish defense, and the player of the “Red Devils” followed it into the net (51) .

John McGinn’s (57) free kick was saved by goalkeeper Kiba’s crossbar from Spain’s third goal.

Create those four goals#EURO2024 https://t.co/gQWwa6xnQL pic.twitter.com/qAvQJRNnR3

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 28, 2023

Norway won’t win without Holland

In the same group, the Norwegian national team failed to win a second straight match after falling to a 1-1 draw against Georgia with its star player Erling Holland out injured.

Georgia, seeking to qualify for the finals of a major tournament for the first time in its history, set up for the continental tournament with an emphatic 6-1 win over Mongolia in a friendly last Saturday.

French coach Willy Sagnol has contributed to the development of the Georgian national team over the past 12 months. This led him to second place in the Nations League competition.

Since their exit from the group stage in 2000, Norway have failed to qualify for the European Cup finals 5 times, while only winning their last six matches in various competitions.

Norway have failed to win against Georgia in all three of their previous meetings, with the last meeting between them, prior to this evening, beginning in May 1999 in a 2000 European Cup qualifier (Norway won 1-0).

In Batumi, the visiting side opened the scoring early through Spanish Real Sociedad striker Alexandre Chorloth (15) before the hosts equalized in the second half through French second-division Metz striker George Mikodadze (60).

In this match, Italy’s Napoli player Gvika Kvaratskelia failed to score and was eliminated.

🇭🇷 Kovačić highlights the audience 👊#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/eXjUnVIjqY

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 28, 2023

Croatia is in the lead

In Group D, Croatia drew 1-1 with Wales in their first round match and beat hosts Turkey 2-0, with Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic (20, 45 + 4) scoring.

Croatia – runner-up for World Cup Russia 2018 and third for Qatar 2022 – topped the group with 4 points, level with Wales, who beat their guests Latvia 1-0 by Kiefer Moore (41).

Turkey bounced back from a valuable 2-1 win over Armenia at the start of the qualifiers – frozen on 3 points in third place, while the latter crashed out of this round’s matches.