Dutch take advantage as Scotland held

(CNN) -- Debutant Chris Iwelumo missed an outstanding chance as Scotland's World Cup hopes took a significant blow as they were held to a goalless draw at home by Norway.

The Wolverhampton striker came off the bench to replace James McFadden in the 58th minute in a bid to salvage the nation's Group 6 hopes at Hampden.

But after Gary Naysmith set him up with an open goal meters out, the 30-year-old somehow missed the target to stun the 50,205 fans.

Having collected just four points from three games, Scotland's hopes of booking their place at South Africa in 2010 is already hanging in the balance with a daunting trip to the Netherlands awaiting them in March.

Manager George Burley felt for Iwelumo, and admitted his glaring miss was costly. "It's one of those things where if you mis-hit it or mis-control it it could go in. It didn't go in, but he showed he can play at this level and gave them a lot of problems.

The Netherlands later took advantage of the Scottish slip up in a later match as Joris Mathijsen and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored to give them a 2-0 win over Iceland.

Rafael van der Vaart created both goals, first crossing for Mathijsen to put the Netherlands in front in the 15th minute before setting up Huntelaar for the second in the 65th.

The Netherlands lead Group 9 with six points, two more than Scotland.

"If you don't drop points, it is a good sign," said Netherlands captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

"We played a very good game. We had plenty of possession and we were better on the attack."

Despite the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, the pressure remained on Portugal after a 0-0 draw at Sweden in a tight Group 1.

Only the group winners are sure to advance, with the runners-up going into playoffs.

Denmark went to the top with seven points by beating Malta 3-0, moving two ahead of Sweden and three ahead of Portugal, Hungary and Albania.

The Albanians dropped from the top spot after losing in Hungary 2-0.

Greece stayed at the top of Group 2 and maintained a perfect record with a 3-0 victory at Moldova with two goals by Angelos Charisteas, one of the stars of their Euro 2004 triumph.

The Greeks are two points ahead of Israel, who won 3-1 in Luxembourg.

The Czech Republic's chances of reaching the World Cup finals suffered a major setback after a 2-1 loss to Group 3 leaders Poland left them six points adrift.

Slovenia beat Northern Ireland 2-0 to stay level with seven points at the top, and Slovakia's 3-1 victory at San Marino kept them in the hunt on six points.