Scotland rode their luck with goal-line call, admits Christie

Ryan Christie acknowledged Scotland were fortunate to survive an early scare against Cyprus, who looked to have taken the lead inside six minutes on Saturday.

Scotland won 2-1 in Nicosia to leapfrog Cyprus into third in Euro 2020 qualification Group I, although neither side can progress automatically to the finals.

The visitors could have been behind before Christie netted his first international goal after 12 minutes, however, as Giorgios Efrem's shot against the crossbar appeared to bounce over the goal line.

No goal was given, allowing Christie to break the deadlock. Efrem later equalised but John McGinn's swift riposte clinched the points.

Reflecting on the incident, Christie told Sky Sports: "From where I was, to be honest, it looked over the line. I've obviously not seen it back yet.

"We rode our luck a bit there in the first 10 minutes. It probably took us longer than we wanted to feel our way into the game.

FULL TIME | Cyprus 1 - 2 Scotland Goals from Ryan Christie and John McGinn give Scotland all three points in Nicosia. Up next is Kazakhstan on Tuesday at Hampden.#CYPSCO pic.twitter.com/XXZP9u8FYs

— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 16, 2019

"After that scare, we got to grips with the game. The goal came and, from there, we were pretty resilient."

He added of his first Scotland goal: "I'm delighted, obviously.

"It's something I've been desperate to do every time I've played for Scotland, and it's probably taken me longer than I wanted. It's nice to get it in a win, as well."

Scotland play Kazakhstan on Tuesday but are already looking towards a home play-off semi-final in March 2020, where McGinn hopes their belief will be boosted by wins such as these.

"There's a lot of new faces in the squad," the in-form Aston Villa midfielder said. "That's a game we might have drawn or lost in recent times, so it's important we get a winning mentality in games like that.

"Even though it wasn't pretty towards the end, it's so important as we build towards March.