September is a huge month in World Cup qualifying Group A.
On the 7 Croatia face Macedonia, Wales play Belgium before Scotland face Serbia a day later, and on September 11 the fixtures are: Serbia v Wales, Belgium v Croatia and Scotland v Macedonia.
All of Scotland's rivals played on Wednesday and here Herald Sport profiles whose fortunes are on the up ahead of the qualifiers.
Serbia
Not really the Hampden warm-up Sinisa Mihajlovic, the new Serbia manager, was looking forward to as they played out a goalless draw against the Republic of Ireland in Belgrade. This was an unfamiliar line-up, with Nemanja Vidic and Dejan Stankovic having retired, while strikers Nikola Zigic and Milan Jovanovic were left out.
Croatia
For a team who looked so enterprising at Euro 2012, the 4-2 home defeat by Switzerland was a huge comedown. Granit Xhaka, Tranquillo Barnetta, and a double from Mario Gavranovic gave the Swiss the win. Eduardo da Silva, formerly of Arsenal, got both Croatian goals but this was a bad day at the office for new manager Igor Stimac.
Belgium
Now under the full-time management of Marc Wilmots, coming from behind to record a 4-2 win against their low countries rival the Netherlands in Brussels might just have been the signature result for this golden generation of players. Even more worryingly for Scotland, they managed it without the rested Vincent Kompany and Marouane Fellaini.
Wales
Clearly not what Chris Coleman had in mind, with the manager openly critical of his side following their 2-0 home defeat against Bosnia. A shot from Liverpool new boy Joe Allen which clattered the bar was one of few plus points as they went down to their hand-picked Balkan opposition.
Macedonia
Got an interesting couple of days out of their system with a 1-0 victory against Lithuania in Skopje. The Macedonians had sacked John Toshack during the week, after just one win in eight games, ostensibly for refusing to uproot from Spain. Caretaker manager Goce Sedloski did his chances of leading the team to Hampden no harm with this win, which was settled by a strike from talisman Goran Pandev.
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