The real reason why Scott McTominay's free-kick vs Spain was disallowed | OneFootball

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Scott McTominay thought he'd secured Scotland's Euros 2024 qualification in style when he scored an absolutely incredible free-kick against Spain to give his side the lead tonight. Taking the set piece from the left-hand side of the area, the Premier League star whipped it into the goal from an unbelievably tight angle, and it was a true beauty.

Unfortunately for the Manchester United man, the goal was disallowed after VAR called for the referee to take a look at the goal. Initially, it was revealed on television that the goal had been disallowed due to an apparent foul from Jack Hendry on Unai Simon in the Spanish net. It was an incredibly harsh call due to the very little contact that the Scotsman made with the keeper and the country would have rightfully felt hard done by if they had seen their effort chalked off for something as soft as that.

It turns out, though, that wasn't actually the real reason the goal was disallowed. It was actually for something else entirely which was revealed later on in the contest. It was too late at that point, though. Scotland wound up losing the contest, with Spain emerging victorious quite comfortably in the end.

What happened during Scotland vs Spain?

After McTominay thought he'd given Scotland the lead, the goal was ruled out and the incident seemed to spark life in the Spaniards. They took control of the contest, as they had during the first half, and began dominating the ball, conjuring up chance after chance in search of an opener.

It eventually came as Alvaro Morata found the back of the net in the 73rd minute before substitute Oihan Sancet sealed the deal for the Spaniards with just five minutes remaining of the match. It was an extremely unfortunate turn of events for Scotland who had stood tall throughout the majority of the contest, and for a short while, thought they'd taken the lead.

With the revelation of the true reason for the goal being chalked off, though, it's hard to really argue with the call, despite how great an effort it would have been.

Why was the free-kick actually ruled out?

While it was initially announced that the goal had been ruled out for a foul on Simon in goal, it was later revealed that it had actually been chalked off due to Hendry being offside and interfering with play as McTominay whipped the ball into the back of the net, as Dale Johnson of ESPN shared on social media. Replays show that that's hard to argue with too. The Scot was in fact marginally offside and while he didn't make too much contact with the Spanish shot-stopper, he certainly did enough that could be considered interfering with play.

The genuine reason won't make the pill any easier for the Scottish to swallow, but it's at least one that is merited. Though, they'd probably rather have been conspired against in this sense. They've been incredible throughout the qualification process and will most likely still make their way to Germany next summer, it will just take a little longer to secure their spot than they would have hoped.

Check out the table below to see how Group A stands after tonight's games.