Ex-Leeds United man holds hands up after villain role in scarcely believable World Cup scenes
A former Leeds United man has held his hands up for his part in one of the most dramatic games in Scottish footballing history.
Rasmus Kristensen was the villain from a Danish point of view on Tuesday night as his second half red card helped the Scots to clinch a 4-2 victory in scarcely believable scenes at Hampden Park. Steve Clarke's side went ahead through Scott McTominay's spectacular overhead kick but by the hour mark the sides were locked at 1-1, Rasmus Hojlund scoring from the spot. Shortly after, Denmark's chances of victory and top spot in World Cup Qualifying Group C took a serious dent when Kristensen was sent off for a second yellow.
His first had arrived on 45 minutes when he cynically tripped John McGinn who was bursting into space just outside the Danish box. It was a stonewall yellow. The second was much more debatable. The Aston Villa midfielder turned to go past Kristensen, felt the slightest contact and went down. Out came another yellow card, then a red.
What followed was carnage. Lawrence Shankland gave Scotland the lead, Patrick Dorgu made it 2-2 and then Kieran Tierney curled home a beautiful strike in added time to put Scotland on the verge of their first World Cup finals in almost three decades. Kenny McLean scoring from the halfway line was astonishing icing on the cake.
Speaking after the game, Kristensen took the blame on himself rather than apportioning it to referee Szymon Marciniak or McGinn.
"I was disappointed with the red card," he said. "Not with the referee specifically, but with myself. It was the wrong decision to challenge McGinn for the ball from that position. I feel like I let my team down. There wasn't a lot of contact, but the referee thought it was enough and I have to accept the decision. At the end of the day, it's my own mistake."
By McGinn's own admission Scotland were not at their best but at full-time it mattered not. Kristensen felt Denmark were the better team on the night but handed Scotland the plaudits for topping the group.
"At 2-2, I still didn't think we'd done enough," he said. "There was a lot of time left and I thought Scotland would put a lot of balls in the area. I thought we dominated the game and were the better team. But if you go through a qualification campaign and you end it in the number one spot, you deserve to win the group. So I wish Scotland all the best and good luck at the World Cup. Hopefully we will get there too and play with them."
Kristensen, who left Leeds in a pair of post-relegation loan moves to Roma and Eintracht Frankfurt before joining the latter permanently this summer, must now hope that Denmark can triumph in the play-offs and still join Scotland in the finals next year.
"It's difficult to speak about confidence now," he said. "We have the draw on Thursday and then we have four months to prepare. We'll come back in March and take on two huge finals then."