WCQ: Scotland 2-0 Malta

Scotland's victory over Malta

Scotland enhanced their chances of qualification for the 2018 World Cup with a 2-0 win over Malta at Hampden Park.

Goals from Christophe Berra (10) and Leigh Griffiths (48) saw off the minnows as Scotland moved to within one point of Slovakia in second place in Group F, after they lost 2-1 to England at Wembley.

Scotland have now won 10 points from their last four games after only winning four points from their opening four World Cup Qualifiers.

Gordon Strachan's men have two matches remaining and go into them knowing that six points will be enough to guarantee the runners-up spot and almost certainly a play-off place. Those games are a monumental home clash with Slovakia (October 5) and a trip to Slovenia (October 8).

Scotland have failed to qualify for the last nine major tournaments since the 1998 World Cup in France, but showed no early nerves in this must-win encounter, scoring inside 11 minutes.

Griffiths whipped in a corner from the right flank which found Berra towering over his marker at the back post. He thumped home his fourth international goal.

That should have set the platform for Scotland to grab plenty of goals against a team who have not won in their last 21 competitive games (D2 L19).

However, they were restricted to long shots which failed to seriously trouble visiting goalkeeper Andrew Hogg.

There was a feeling that Scotland were playing with the handbrake on and they put their foot on the gas just after the break to double their lead.

Andrew Robertson had the beating of his man on the left flank all night and he used his pace to fly into the box on 50 minutes. His cross was turned towards goal by James Morrison. That effort came back off the post but Griffiths was on hand to turn home from close range.

Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon had little to do but in the 75th minute made a decent double-save, first from Joseph Zerafa's angled-drive then from striker Alfred Effiong's follow-up attempt.

Griffiths limped off late on with a calf injury - but that was a minor blip on a job well done for Strachan's men.