Billy Dodds raced away after smashing a penalty into the roof of the Belgian net and Scotland’s 2002 World Cup qualification campaign was firmly on track.
Moments earlier, Belgium had been reduced to 10 men after Eric Deflandre handled Colin Hendry’s goal-bound header.
Now with 30 minutes on the clock, Scotland were cruising and set to leapfrog Belgium at the top of their qualifying group.
A credible point away in Croatia coupled with this win would go a long way to sending the Scots to Japan and South Korea and prove that missing Euro 2000 was merely a blip.
The current Belgium team is packed with global superstars and was a whisker away from reaching the World Cup final last year.
But this was a much less impressive vintage, ranked only 26th by Fifa at the time.
The Scots themselves were two places below in the rankings and with a solid lead and a man advantage in front of a raucous Hampden crowd, few would’ve bet against them slipping up.
But unfortunately, this is Scotland, and boy, did it ever go wrong.
Marc Wilmots pulled one back with a header just before the hour to set up a tense finale and a great chance for Craig Burley to kill the game went begging when he was denied by a last-ditch tackle from Didier Dhedeene.
It was squeaky bum time all over Hampden as the Belgians turned on the pressure and the Scots breathed a huge sigh of relief when Bart Goor blasted a glorious chance past the post in the 89th minute.
Just a few minutes later however, Belgium completed their comeback.
Sven Vermant floated a cross into the box and Daniel Van Buyten, winning just his second cap, flicked a header past Neil Sullivan for his first international goal.
It kept the Belgians on top of the group and after a powderpuff 0-0 draw with Croatia at Hampden later that year, Scotland needed to avoid defeat in Brussels to keep their World Cup dream alive.
Goals from Nico Van Kerckhoeven and Goor condemned the Scots to a 2-0 defeat and put a question mark over long-serving manager Craig Brown’s future.
The bad news is Scotland have faced Belgium on four separate occasions since then and lost them all without scoring a goal.
You have to go back to October 1987, when goals from Ally McCoist and Paul McStay gave the Scots a 2-0 win.
Throwing away a two-goal lead against 10 men and only ending up with a point doesn’t sound great, but you’d take that tonight wouldn’t you?
