THIS
afternoon will be a Red Letter
Day for Scottish football, when 23 years of hurt comes to an end and
we get back into the big show – with our opening game in Euro 2020,
against old enemies the Czech Republic. By rights, the game ought to
attract a full-house attendance of the Tartan Army for a
full-throated Hampden occasion. However, Covid has put paid to that.
Still, we can expect those who do attend to make a day of it anyway.
OK, we have finally got to the big show, however, let's be brutally honest here, Scotland and the Euros have never been comfortable bed fellows. Just look at our record in this competition:
1960 – Did not enter
1964 – Did not enter
1968 – The campaign began on a low note, a 1-1 draw with Wales in Cardiff; improved via a 2-1 Hampden win over Northern Ireland; went absolutely ballistic with the miracle of Wembley 1967 – then frittered awaw, via a loss to a George Best-inspired Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, a scruffy 3-2 come-from-behind win over Wales at Hampden, before withering away completely with a tame 1-1 draw with England, at Hampden. We did not qualify.
1972 – We opened with a 1-0 win over Denmark at Hampden, but three back-to-back losses, 3-0 to Belgium in Liege and 2-0 to Portugal in Lisbon, then 1-0 to Denmark in Copenhagen put paid to our hopes and Bobby Brown's tenure as manager. Tommy Docherty came in and led us to a 2-1 win over Portugal and a 1-0 defeat of Belgium, but, it was too little, too late. Again, we did not qualify.
1976 – The euphoria of the 1974 World Cup lasted until our first qualifying game of the new campaign, and a disappointing 2-1 loss to Spain at Hampden, in November, 1974. A 1-1 draw in Spain in the return, in February, 1975, offered some hope. However, 1-1 draws, away and at home to Romania, plus home and away wins over Denmark, 1-0 in Copenhagen and 3-1 at Hampden, meant we lost out to Spain. We did not qualify.
1980 – An opening 3-2 loss to Austria in Vienna was Ally MacLeod's final game as Scotland boss and brought in Jock Stein to steady the ship. This he did with a scrambled win over Norway at Hampden – two late goals, from Kenny Dalglish (82) and Archie Gemmill (penalty, 87), saved the jerseys in a 3-2 win. A 1-0 Lisbon loss to Portugal was disappointing, but, after a comfortable 4-0 win over Norway in Oslo's Ullevaal Stadion, and a 1-1 Hampden draw with the Austrians, it all came down to the two games against Belgium. Sadly, a 2-0 loss in the Heysel was followed by a 3-1 loss at Hampden. Again, we did not qualify.
1984 – Jim Leighton made a winning debut, and kept a clean sheet, as this campaign began with a 2-0 Hampden win over East Germany. However, a 2-0 Berne loss to Switzerland and a 3-2 loss to Belgium put the brakes on our hopes. A 2-2 draw with the Swiss at Hampden had us looking for help elsewhere. However, a 1-1 draw with Belgium back at Hampden and a 2-1 loss to East Germany in Halle meant a familiar story. Scotland failed to qualify for the finals.
1988 – Andy Roxburgh's reign as team manager began with a low key 0-0 Hampden draw with Bulgaria in our opening qualifier. Another “draw nae fitba,” 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland failed to lift spirits, while a 3-0 win over Luxembourg was no less than we expected. However, when the Irish came to Hampden and won 1-0, then Belgium hammered us 41 in Brussels, we were again staring at non-qualification. We did finally beat Belgium, 2-0 at Hampden, before beating Bulgaria 1-0 in Sofia; Gary Mackay's goal, however, only served to send the Republic of Ireland through while the less said about our final qualifier, a 0-0 draw with Luxembourg in Esch-sur-Alzette was a (very) disappointing end to a disappointing campaign. A familiar story – Scotland failed to qualify.
1992 – This turned out to be a lucky seventh campaign in Europe for us. A 2-1 win over Romania in our opener was followed by a similar result against Switzerland, both games at Hampden. Back-to-back 1-1 draws with Bulgaria did not harm our hopes. A 2-0 away win over the minnows of San Marino was no less than expected. We then drew 2-2 with Switzerland in Berne, were slightly miffed by a 1-0 Bucharest loss to Romania. However, a comfortable 4-0 Hampden win over San Marino sent us off to the finals in Sweden, For the first time – SCOTLAND HAD QUALIFIED.
1996 – Football was coming home to England for the 1996 finals, and, having missed out on the World Cup there 30 years before (I believe England won that one, but, since they don't mention it much, I am not sure). Scotland was determined to be there. We wer expected to win our two openers, and duly did, beating Finland 2-0 in Helsinki; then thrashing the Faroe Islands 5-1 at Hampden. A 1-1 Hampden draw with Russia and a 1-0 loss to Greece in Athens stopped us getting ahead of ourselves, before a 0-0 Moscow draw with Russia and a 2-0 win in San Marino meant we were still in the mix. Back-to-back wins, 2-0 in the Faroes and 1-0 against Greece at Hampden had us looking confidently forward to our final two games, wherein a 1-0 Hampden win over the Finns and a 5-0 thrashing of San Marino meant, yet again – SCOTLAND HAD QUALIFIED. We were going to the party.
2000 - We went into the tournament ranked sixth, but, in Group 9 of the qualifying stage, we won five, drew three and lost two of our ten games, to finish second to the Czech Republic, who won all ten games. This still gave us a chance of qualifying via the play-offs, in which we were drawn to play England, home and away. With skipper Paul Lambert missing the irst leg, at Hampden, we went down 2-0 to a Paul Scholes double. Then, in the second leg at Wembley, Don Hutchison headed us in front, but, try as we might, we could not score even the second goal which would have levelled matters and thus went out in the most disappointing of circumstances. Another qualifying failure.
2004 – Our seeding had dropped from sixth four years before, to 20th, which put us in Group Five, alongside fifth seeds Germany. We justified second seeding in the group by finishing second and, as four years before, advancing to the play-offs. Here we were drawn against the Netherlands. It began well enough, with a 1-0 Hampden win in the first leg, but, the second leg in Amsterdam is one of those “Disaster for Scotland” nights as we lost 6-0 and crashed out. Another qualifying failure.
2008 – The fall of Scottish football continued. Sixth seeds in 2000, 20th seeds in 2004; for the 2008 tournament, we were seeded 27th and ranked third in Group B, behind Italy and France. James McFadden scored one of the greatest Scottish goals, in a 1-0 win over France in Paris, but, the seedings played out, we finished third. Another qualifying failure.
2012 – At least, our seedings slide was halted and we entered this tournament as the 26th seeds. This placed us as third seeds in Group I, behind Spain and the Czech Republic. We won three, lost three and drew two of our eight games, justified our third seeding in the group, but, it was the same old story. Another qualifying failure.
2016 – The downward spiral continued. We entered the competition ranked 31st in Europe. This placed us as fourth seeds in Group D, behind Germany, Poland and the Republic of Ireland, but, ahead of Georgia and Gibraltar. And that's where we stayed. We easily accounted for Georgia and Gibraltar; well, ok, we lost in Georgia, but we gathered 15 points, which maintained fourth place. Germany and Poland qualified, the Republic of Ireland reached the play-offs, but, once again the story was: another qualifying failure.
2020 – And here we are, bang up to date. Again, we failed to qualify from the group, finishing third in Group I, behind Belgium and Russia. We had gone into the event on a bit of an upward trajectory, having risen to 25th in the rankings. We finished third in the group, but still had a second chance of qualifying via the new Nations League format. Here we got past Israel, 5-3 on penalties, then had to travel to Serbia for an in terms of qualification, winner takes all match. Again, it went to penalties, where, as we all know, David Marshall earned immortality with a crucial save as Scotland won 5-4 on spot kicks to finally, after a 23-year hiatus, qualify for one of the two big shows.
And that's where we stand, poised on the edge of either great things, or another Disaster for Scotland. One thing about being born Scots and automatically signed-up for the Tartan Army, life is never boring.
We now face Czech Republic and Serbia at Hampden, either side of a Wembley trip to face “Them,” here we go – here we go – here we go, all aboard the roller-coaster.
Haud me back – Ah cannae wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment