Scotland earn 1-1 draw with Croatia in Burley's first game
Wednesday, 26 Mar 2008 22:04
Scotland's Scott Brown tussles with Croatia's Ivica Olic
George Burley avoided defeat in his first game in charge of Scotland after his under-strength side drew 1-1 with Croatia at Hampden Park.
Burley was without captain Barry Ferguson, Lee McCulloch, Christian Dailly and Allan McGregor for his first game as manager.
Scotland started slowly against a Croatia side that qualified for the European Championships ahead of England and it took just ten minutes for the visitors to open the scoring.
Highly-rated Luka Modric picked out Niko Kranjcar on the edge of the penalty area and the Portsmouth midfielder slammed the ball past Craig Gordon into the roof of the net.
But Scotland drew level on the half hour when Kenny Miller took advantage of Robert Kovac's slip to collect Steven Fletcher's long ball and slide the ball into the net.
His strike took a deflection of Josip Simunic and was Scotland's best moment in a half that saw Croatia in control.
Croatia had chances to win the game in the second half with Igor Budan forcing Gordon into a save after being set free in the penalty area by Modric.
Rangers striker Kris Boyd, on as a substitute, offered Burley a physical approach in the latter stages of the game after he flattened Manchester City defender Vedran Corluka.
But Burley's weakened team held out for a creditable draw, even threatening with a couple of late half-chances.