Scotland boss Steve Clarke admits VAR had him praying during win over Israel

Scotland's John McGinn celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the FIFA World Cup Qualifying match at Hampden Park, Glasgow. Jane Barlow/PA Wire.

Eran Zahavi put the visitors ahead at a sold-out Hampden Park with a curling free-kick in the fifth minute before midfielder John McGinn levelled in the 29th minute with a drive.

Munas Dabbur restored Israel’s lead two minutes later and Dykes had a penalty saved by keeper Ofir Marciano just before the interval, but then had the ball in the net again, only for it to be initially ruled out for a high foot as Ofri Arad challenged.

Polish official Marciniak eventually ran over to his pitch side monitor and awarded the goal, to the delight of Clarke and the Tartan Army, before Scott McTominay bundled in a McGinn corner six minutes into stoppage time for three crucial points which keep the Scots in second place in Group F and on their way to a play-off spot.

Clarke said: “Initially, from the technical area, I am looking at it and thinking it was a foul because the referee chalked it off.

“I turned to my bench and they are telling me straight away that there is no contact, so I’m praying that the referee goes to look at it on the monitor because I had a feeling when he went to the monitor that we would get the goal.

“My games in charge against Israel have always been quite tight affairs. But the fact that we conceded an early goal, a soft goal, giving a free-kick away at the edge of the box because Zahavi can do what he does as he is top quality.

“That changes the dynamic of the whole game so it was difficult for us to get back into it.

“Eventually we made some passes and eventually we got John McGinn free at the edge of the box and made it 1-1. Then we shot ourselves in the foot again and that is two big blows to take.

“We managed to put ourselves into some kind of contention going into the break and then we get the penalty and Dykes misses.

“I told them at half-time if you do want to lose the game you are doing it in the perfect fashion.

“The talk at half-time was really about having to play our own way, with more tempo, more ambition, control the game better and we did that from the start of the second half more or less until the 96th minute and we got our reward.”