There may have been no Hazard at Hampden but there was still plenty of danger for Scotland.
Belgium won 2-0 in this World Cup qualifying Group A game even without star man Eden Hazard, the Chelsea player ruled out through injury.
They will be looking out their passports now, on the brink of clinching their place.
The Scots, meanwhile, are left sitting at the bottom of table with Tartan Army thoughts and dreams of the Brazilian beaches and bars having been banished a long time ago.
Watched from the stand by another top-class absentee Vincent Kompany, the Belgians grabbed the lead on 38 minutes.
It was beautifully-crafted goal, with Steven Defour converting a cut-back from man of the match Kevin de Bruyne.
Then, with just two minutes remaining, sub Kevin Mirallas wrapped things up with a shot from inside the box.
It was the right result and the Scots just have to accept that when they come up against sides like this one they are still a fair bit behind despite improvement under boss Gordon Strachan.
The Scotland boss had picked former Dundee frontman Leigh Griffiths as the man to plug the gap in attack left by the retiral from international football of Kenny Miller.
The plan was that he would be backed up at every opportunity by the likes of Robert Snodgrass the scorer of the winner in Croatia Shaun Maloney and James Forrest.
The national coach kept faith with the defence that lined up against England at Wembley despite he himself expressing concerns about a lack of concentration at times during that 3-2 defeat.
Behind the backline was Cardiff keeper David Marshall, standing in for the suspended Allan McGregor.
Belgium had come up with that rare thing in football a pre-match injury scare that had foundation.
There was no sign of Hazard either on the pitch or on the bench. It turned out eve-of-match talk of an achilles injury turned out to be more than mere speculation.
That was an obvious boost for the Scots but they still had plenty of others to worry about.
On a dreich night in Glasgow, the away fans painted a fabulous picture of red and yellow and all 10,000 or so of them seemed to be in Scotland for a party.
It was up to their hosts to keep them quiet.
Macedonia’s win in Wales before kick-off at Hampden saw Strachan’s men drop to the bottom of Group A so there was plenty of incentive for the players as they walked out of the tunnel.
As the game kicked off, one thing that struck you smack bang in the face was the height of the Belgians in all departments, towering over the likes of Maloney and Griffiths.
The first threat came from the visitors with the game a minute old, with Chelsea’s De Bruyne first winning a corner and then sending the set-piece right in front of the nose of a too static Marshall and away for a goal-kick.
New Manchester United man Marouane Fellaini then nearly caught the Scots out twice in succession on eight minutes.
Firstly, he did well to stay onside and ghosted in at the back post only to fail to connect with his outstretched boot.
Then came an even better opportunity when he was picked out by Nacer Chadli again at the back post but sent his header wide.
Snodgrass picked up the first booking of the night for using an arm in a challenge with Axel Witsel then the home side had their first attempt on target a deflected cross from Maloney that was comfortably saved by keeper Thibaut Courtois on 11 minutes.
Fellaini was harshly yellow-carded for a challenge on Snodgrass that saw the Belgian star win the ball as the game reached the quarter-hour mark.
There was then a weak appeal for a penalty when Snodgrass went down in the Belgian box after collecting a quick freekick from Maloney but the Norwich man just seemed to fall when tackled and didn’t claim for a foul himself.
The Scots were doing OK at crowding out the Belgian players when they got into attacking positions, as was the case against England, but they were split open by a De Bruyne run on 28 minutes. Luckily, he chose to have a shot himself rather than play in Fellaini and Marshall saved.
On 33 minutes, skipper Scott Brown nearly stunned the Belgians when he produced the best attempt of the match thus far.
After his Celtic clubmate Charlie Mulgrew had tried to tee himself up for a shot, Brown stepped in and let fly with a spectacular strike from 25 yards that just missed by a few inches.
Witsel’s volley was saved by Marshall at the other end before Belgium made the breakthrough on 38 minutes.
It was a lovely goal, started by a Fellaini pass up the right wing to De Bruyne.
A perfect cutback by the Chelsea man picked out Defour just inside the box and his sweeping shot beat Marshall low at the goalie’s right-hand post.
The second period kicked off with the rain still pouring down on the players.
The first break of the half came from Belgium when Chadli strolled up to the edge of the home box before firing in a shot that didn’t trouble Marshall then Christian Benteke sent the keeper scurrying to guide his attempt away for a corner.
With 56 minutes on the clock, Scotland showed their opponents they were still in the game when a Steven Whittaker strike whizzed past the Belgian post. Hutton then went down in the area under a challenge from Chadli that appeared to be clean.
Nicolas Lombaerts was booked for a foul on Griffiths then, just before the hour, Snodgrass went off to be replaced by debutant Ickechi Anya.
The Watford man made a quick impact, racing down the left wing then playing the ball inside to Maloney, whose clipped effort didn’t miss the bar by too much.
The Scots then made another change on 68 minutes, taking off Griffiths and replacing him with Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes, who would eventually be joined up front by Maloney.
Belgium had a major setback on 76 minutes when Lombaerts hobbled off with a bad ankle injury to be replaced by Sebastian Pocognoli.
There was still life left in the Scots and when Brown played a dangerous ball into the goalmouth, Rhodes wasn’t far away.
The deadly De Bruyne almost made it 2-0 with a vicious drive from distance that had to be acrobatically pushed around the upright by Marshall.
Strachan played his last card by bringing on Leeds striker Ross McCormack with four minutes to go but the Belgians were extremely comfortable.
And when their second goal came it was no surprise.
Another excellent forward pass, this time by Christian Benteke, landed right at the feet of sub Mirallas who ran into the area then picked his spot past Marshall.
As Belgium left the pitch, even the Scotland fans must surely have acknowledged that this is a team that will not only reach Brazil but grace the World Cup.