NECROPOLIS WOW

Super Scotland stun Greeks on their own patch but it's a real head-scratcher after game of two halves

- KEITH JACKSON

THEY'RE renowned thinkers the Greeks. They've quite a history for it in this particular ancient capital.

But all the philosophising in the world might not fully explain what happened here in Athens as Steve Clarke carried his Scotland side one huge step back towards the top flight of the Nations League.

Let's be clear on a night of joyous confusion. For a start, Clarke and his players were playing Greece off their own pitch with a first-half display which was high on composure and control.

A Scott McTominay penalty had them ahead at half-time but it could and should have been a great deal more.

And yet this tie could have been turned on its head by a storming second half from the home side who looked transformed by the arrival of a teenage sensation from the bench.

Then, at the death, they thought they were snatching a draw only to be denied a spot-kick of their own by the men with the remote control.

So now all roads lead to Hampden for Sunday's second leg and they might still be trying to get their heads around all of this madness on the charter flight to Glasgow.

Clarke, of course, had some serious decision-making to do before a ball had been kicked.

And the news that he had, in fact, chosen to stick with a back four even though it meant leaving Kieren Tierney on the bench was the first eyebrow raiser.

Rewind to less than a year ago and the very notion that he might make such a call, with a fit and firing Tierney at his disposal, would have brought about a visit from another kind of medics.

Yet times have changed since last summer's Euros. Clarke's Scotland have moved on.