I have watched Scottish international games at Hampden for many years, and seldom have I heard the Tartan Army voice their displeasure quite as much as they did last week.
Hampden Park. Picture: Daniel Forsyth..
The booing at half-time in both matches was a little surprising given both games were level at that time but is perhaps symptomatic of the higher standards we expect from our national team these days.
The Greek game on the Thursday was always going to be difficult given it was a virtual must win match for our opponents who had displayed their quality on their previous visit to Hampden in March.
We should also remember that they have a squad littered with very good players who ply their trade with top European sides including Sporting Lisbon, Seville, Roma, Lazio, Club Brugge etc.
It was probably the amount of possession enjoyed by Greece that irked the home support and most of the Scottish work was done without the ball, especially in that first half.
The Greeks ended up with twice the number of efforts on goal as us but had the same number of shots on target as Scotland, three, the big difference being every one of ours ended up in the net.
More concerning for me was the Belarus match. Given the difference in quality of the opposition and the expected ‘bounce’ from that Thursday victory it was a really disjointed performance with many of our bigger name players not getting anywhere near their true level.
The ease with which the Belarusians cut through us saw them have numerous openings but thankfully their final shot or pass was poor and, allied to some lengthy VAR decisions going our way, we managed to come away with all three points.
It must have been worrying for manager Steve Clarke, who didn’t hold back at half-time and was obviously still hugely frustrated on the full-time whistle. His comment that he was ‘really, really disappointed in his team’ was not like him but, in the cold light if day, we have kept the qualification dream alive.
A significant improvement for the trip to Athens in November will be required but these players have shown previously that they can produce when it’s needed most and if we can return with at least a point it turns the Denmark match at Hampden into a ‘winner takes all’ showdown.
There’s not one Scots fan who wouldn’t have snapped your hand off for that prior to the group matches kicking off in early September.
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