Scotland played 80 minutes with ten men, and Switzerland won 3-0 on Pocognoli’s first night at Hampden
Jack Hendry’s early red card handed Switzerland a free-kick goal, and Dan Ndoye set up two more as the Swiss stayed top of Nations League B1.
Sep 30, 2026
Sebastien Pocognoli got a warm reception at Hampden on Tuesday night. By the time the first quarter of an hour was up, Scotland were a man and a goal down, and the evening ended in a 3-0 Nations League defeat to Switzerland.
Jack Hendry was the one who went. Dan Ndoye ran at him on the counter, Hendry pulled him back, and Serbian referee Nenad Minakovic first gave a penalty and a yellow card. VAR sent him to the monitor. The foul was outside the box, so the penalty became a free-kick, and because the foul had denied a clear goalscoring chance, the yellow became a red. Ricardo Rodriguez then curled the free-kick past Angus Gunn from the edge of the box.
“Red card, then directly punished from the red card with a free-kick, so probably the worst situation that we can have,” Pocognoli said afterwards.
Ndoye made the other two
Scotland held on until early in the second half. Then a corner was only half cleared, Ndoye drove a low ball across, and Nico Elvedi finished first time on 55 minutes. Ndoye set up the third as well, for Zeki Amdouni on 82 minutes. Gunn got a hand to Amdouni’s shot and could only help it into the roof of the net.
Pocognoli had already reshaped the side long before that. Kieron Bowie, who got his start after Saturday’s goalless draw in Ljubljana, was taken off for defender Stephen Welsh after the red card. Gunn did keep out Ndoye once in the first half, and the Scots had a penalty claim from John McGinn turned down, but they never really threatened.
For Switzerland it was a second 3-0 win in three days, after the one in Skopje, and they did it without Granit Xhaka again. It is also two away wins from two to start their Nations League campaign.
Four games, no goals
The number Scotland will not like is four. They have now gone four matches without scoring, counting the last two games of the World Cup, and it is the first time that has happened since 1971.
Pocognoli sounded more frustrated than worried. “I had a warm welcome from the crowd and that made me feel a little bit sad because we wanted to give something back and we couldn’t,” he said. He added that he had wanted “something to give a direction about where we want to go”, and the red card took that away.
McGinn, who won his 91st cap to draw level with Jim Leighton in joint-third on Scotland’s all-time list, called it “a big setback”. He also went out of his way to praise Oli McBurnie, who led the line for most of the night. “He’s had a lot of criticism in a Scotland shirt, but [this game] was a thankless task and he gave everything for us,” McGinn said.
Where Group B1 stands
Switzerland have six points from two games. Slovenia are on four after beating North Macedonia 2-0 on the same night, Scotland have one and North Macedonia none.
Scotland go to Skopje on Saturday, 3 October, and then host Slovenia on Tuesday, 6 October. Both kick off at 7.45pm UK time, which is 12.15am IST the following morning. North Macedonia have not won in ten games, so Saturday is about as good a chance as Pocognoli will get to find a first goal and a first win. My view is that it has to be both. Another blank in Skopje and this stops being a slow start.