Croatia 0 Scotland 1

Derided and disdained beforehand, Gordon Strachan's patchwork Scotland side confounded their doubters by sucking Croatia into the swamp of their own complacency to emerge with a wholly unforeseen victory from the Maksimir Stadium on Friday night.

The opportunist first-half strike by Robert Snodgrass that settled the issue also meant that Scotland are the first side to inflict a home defeat on Croatia in 48 qualifiers since Fabio Capello's England in 2008.

The Scots' first win in Group A broke Strachan's duck as manager and guarantees they will be in the fourth group of seeds in the draw for Euro 2016. It came far too late for Scotland to sustain an interest in reaching the World Cup finals in Brazil but it will nurture a much needed flicker of hope that they have found a new direction after one of the most dispiriting passages in their history.

As revealed on Friday, Leigh Griffiths was granted his first start for Scotland, but he was not asked to lead the line in isolation. Instead, Shaun Maloney pushed into the hole behind the Hibernian striker, with Barry Bannan – who last played in March – pushed wide left in midfield.

The most obvious difficulty presented by this arrangement was the physical discrepancy between Maloney, Bannan and Griffiths and the Croatian centre back pair of Josip Simunic and Gordon Schildenfeld, emphasised by the fact that Strachan had deployed his resources to frustrate the Croats around Allan McGregor's penalty area by congesting the approaches – with James McArthur and James Morrison sitting in front of the back four – while hoping to spring the necessary counterpunch.

The chances of that happening looked remote in the early stages as the Scots struggled to retain possession, with Snodgrass a notable sinner in the opening exchanges. However, an oddity soon became evident.

Croatia had not come out of the blocks as powerfully as had been anticipated and, although Ivan Rakitic fulfilled Strachan's warning that there would be attempts to hunt down the Scottish goalkeeper, McGregor looked alert and effective, both when coming off his line to boot clearances upfield and when plucking crosses from the air before they could reach the ever menacing Mario Mandzukic.

In fact, for all the forebodings on Scotland's part which preceded this encounter, the first quarter of the contest passed without them sustaining damage or looking particularly likely to do so. For those who anticipated that the situation could not continue for long, the next development was confounding.

Yet there seemed little promise in the thrust which saw Maloney scurry from midfield on an angled run towards the edge of the Croatia area. However, the entire Croatian back line was sucked towards him and he got the touch of fortune that favours the brave when the ball ricocheted from Darijo Srna's shin and back across the box.

Snodgrass saw the opportunity before Ivan Strinic – who was caught ball watching – reacted to the danger. The Dnipro full back could only look on in anguish as Snodgrass cut across him and lofted his finish over the diving Stipe Pletikosa, who was caught high by the Norwich man's outstretched boot and needed five minutes treatment.Strachan's response to the breakthrough was an almost languid wave of his right hand, but Igor Stimac used the enforced break to gather his outfield players around the technical area for a pep talk.

Again, though, the expected rally failed to materialise, although it took an example of inspired defensive work by Russell Martin – paired for the first time with Grant Hanley at centre back – to preserve the Scots' advantage into the interval. For the first time it was Croatia who launched a counterattack to catch the Scots without Morrison and McArthur shielding the defence as Ivica Olic cut infield for a venomous angled drive that beat McGregor and would have found the net but for the anticipation demonstrated by Martin as he threw himself across the goal line to block.

Stimac, for the third time, had to deliver a team talk and his players, out early for the restart, reacted by raising the tempo significantly but with the score unchanged 10 minutes into the half, he removed Ivan Perisic and sent on Eduardo - second only to Davor Suker as a goalscorer for his country. It made no difference, as Martin and Hanley stood firm against his maraudings and those of the plainly frustrated Mandzukic.

Stimac, too, cut a forlorn figure at the end, having warned Scotland that "I will not allow you to leave with a point." Indeed, Igor – three points was much more satisfactory.

Match details

Croatia (4-4-2): Pletikosa; Srna, Schildenfeld, Simunic, Strinic (Kalinic 70); Kovacic, Sammir, Rakitic, Perisic (Eduardo 55); Olic, Mandzukic (Kranjcar 87).
Subs Kresic (g), Subasic (g), Milic, Ilicevic, Vukojevic, Jelavic, Badelj, Halilovic, Vida.
Booked Rakitic.
Scotland (4-5-1): McGregor (Besiktas); Hutton (Real Mallorca), Hanley (Blackburn Rovers), Whittaker (Norwich City); Snodgrass (Norwich City), Morrison (West Brom), McArthur (Wigan), Bannan (Aston Villa), Maloney (Wigan); Griffiths (Hibernian).
Subs Naismith (Everton, for Bannan 63), Rhodes (Blackburn, for Griffiths 64), Conway (Cardiff, for Maloney 75); Not used Gilks (Blackpool) (g), Marshall (Cardiff City) (g), Webster (Heart of Midlothian), Mackay-Steven (Dundee United), Hammell (Motherwell), Burke (Birmingham), Armstrong (Dundee United), Jack (Aberdeen), Watt (Celtic). Booked McGregor, McArthur, Whittaker.
Referee David Fernandez Borbalan (Spain).

Taken from telegraph.co.uk