Scotland analysis: This was not a night for obituaries, but a night when Steve Clarke’s

Physically drained and mentally spent at the end of a gruelling 90 minutes in the late summer heat of Lisbon, Scotland failed to go the distance once again.

As was the case against Poland at Hampden on Thursday night, the concession of a late goal was a gut punch to Steve Clarke’s side as it denied them what would have been a hard-fought point.

Now in among the big guns of European football, Clarke needs Pot A of the Nations League like a hole in the head right now.

Where Scotland might have been able to get away with these mistakes against lesser teams in the past, they are now being brutally punished.

An absolutely wretched run of results now sees Clarke and Scotland with just one win in their past 14 games.

Not even the most wildly optimistic Scotland fan would have expected that run to be halted last night, but this game felt different to much of what had gone before.

Billy Gilmour and substitute Ben Doak reflect on the bitter ending in Lisbon at full-time

Portugal boss Roberto Martinez consoles Steve Clarke after his side snatched a late victory

Match-winner Ronaldo – who else? – takes the acclaim of Neves and Fernando after scoring

Scotland encountered a multitude of travel problems on the journey to Lisbon on Saturday, with their delayed flight eventually touching down at an old military base some 100 miles outside the Portuguese capital.

Given the levels of dejection among the Tartan Army over recent months, there was a feeling that Scotland could have flown in on Air Force One and it wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference.

Even without captain Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting line-up, the expectation was that Portugal would fire up the jet engines and soar off into the distance.

But those feelings of pessimism and trepidation among the travelling support were smashed after just seven minutes when Scott McTominay bulleted a header past Diogo Costa for 1-0.

With that, Scotland had hope. Andy Roxburgh once commented that ‘a team died out there’ after his Scots suffered a 5-0 thrashing in Lisbon just over 30 years ago.

On the contrary, Clarke’s side now had a pulse once again. They had something to fight for. Trying to keep Portugal at bay for the remaining 83 minutes would, of course, be a gargantuan task.

Scott McTominay’s headed opener gave Scotland an unlikely lead and kept up his scoring form

What a strange old night it was for Angus Gunn, who continues to excel and horrify in equal measure.

Make no bones about it, if it hadn’t been for Gunn’s heroics in the second half, Scotland would have lost this match by a far greater margin than just one goal.

He was outstanding in twice denying Joao Felix in the second half, once with a stupendous swipe of his right arm to hook the ball off the goal-line.

But there’s a problem with Gunn. For all his highlights reel stuff, he’s also liable to chuck one in. It’s been happening more and more frequently over the past year.

By the end of the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024, Gunn had built a fair amount of credit in the bank.

Brought in as the replacement for the injured Craig Gordon, Gunn kept four clean sheets in those first five games.

Angus Gunn had an at-times inspired evening in goal, keeping out Joao Felix on this occasion

But the mistakes are becoming more frequent and more high profile. It started in the friendlies against Northern Ireland and Holland pre-Euros.

That dip continued in Germany and has bled into this campaign. He was at fault for Poland’s first goal at Hampden and was weak once again last night as Bruno Fernandes made it 1-1.

Some people might think that’s harsh, given that Gunn went on to make several good saves towards the end of the game. But it’s an ability to do the basics that is causing such alarm with Gunn.

The highlights-reel saves don’t mean anything when he can’t save shots struck from so far out they might as well be in a different postcode.

However, even despite the defeat and the concession of another late goal, this was a reasonably positive night for Clarke in the grand scheme of things.

That is not intended to glorify failure. Far from it. But there was a genuine fear that Scotland could lose by five or six last night.

Ronaldo exchanges words with shattered Scotland skipper Andy Robertson at full-time

A fear that their defence could be ripped apart by Portugal’s razor-sharp attacking play, even with Ronaldo sat on the bench from the start.

Certainly, when you watched Rafael Leao torch Tony Ralston for pace time and time again, it wasn’t hard to understand where those fears came from.

Ralston has probably spent these past few months having nightmares about Jamal Musiala after that horror show in Munich.

A blur of speed and trickery on the left wing, Leao is cut from the same cloth and caused Ralston all manner of problems.

But Scotland caused problems of their own. Granted, they were guilty of sitting too deep at times, especially in that initial period after going 1-0 up.

It wasn’t just a case of being pummelled by Portugal for the remainder of the game. Scotland offered enough going forward to suggest all is not yet lost under Clarke.

Rafael Leao was a livewire for the hosts and gave Scotland full-back Ralston a torrid evening

Where Roxburgh’s team died in Lisbon all those years ago, Scotland had a bit of a reawakening. This was not a night for obituaries, but a night when this team showed life.

The pain of another late defeat will undoubtedly sting in the immediate aftermath as Scotland travel home.

With a trip to Zagreb to face Croatia on the horizon next month, things certainly aren’t going to get much easier for Clarke and his players.

But this was a performance which at least showed some fight. Any notion of this team chucking in the towel remains premature.