Scotland’s hopes of automatic promotion to the UEFA Nations League ended after a 2-1 defeat at home to Slovenia.
Sebastien Pocognoli’s men were chasing a 2-0 win in North Macedonia last time out and took the lead on the half-hour when Ryan Christie headed home from close range.
But in the 56th minute, Aljosa Matko headed into the bottom left-hand corner to level matters for Slovenia, then Danijel Sturm made a fine move down the right to turn in a simple finish from Matko’s cross.
Scotland were booed by the home fans at Hampden Park as they suffered their second defeat in four games, leaving them third in League B Group 1 with just four points to their name.
With Switzerland’s 3-0 win over North Macedonia, thanks in part to goals from Yohan Manzambi and Dan Ndoye, Scotland can’t top the group, with an eight-point gap to the leaders out of reach with two games in hand.
In the group, they are three points behind Slovenia, who advanced to the promotion play-offs. With the head-to-head record tiebreaker, Scotland must improve on their results in their last two games next month to leapfrog Slovenia.
San Marino suffered heartbreak as they were denied a penalty in the 93rd minute in a famous draw with Albania in the C League.
Kristjan Asllani put Albania on course for a routine win against the perennial whipping boys in the 11th minute.
But Lorenzo Lazzari stunned the crowd in Tirana when he headed home Lorenzo Capicchioni’s cross.
It looked like it would be enough to earn San Marino a point, but there was a crushing sting in the minnows’ tail when captain Fabbri was adjudged to have handled in the area following a VAR review, and Asllani came to Albania’s rescue, finding the bottom right-hand corner from 12 yards to secure a 2-1 victory.
Other C League results
Kazakhstan 2-2 Faroe Islands
Belarus 1:0 Finland
Estonia 0:0 Iceland
Luxembourg 0-2 Bulgaria
Moldova 0-4 Slovakia