They're Oot - Scotland Can Relax Again

SO, OUR perception that, just maybe, Neymar wasn't as good as he was cracked-up to be, and, similarly, this wasn't a vintage Brazilian team proved to be correct. They are oot, bubbling like bairns and set to suffer another four years before they can reclaim what they see as their birthright.

It was like turning the clock back to 1974, with a Celtic full-back out-shining the entire Brazilian team. Josip Juranovic has yet to reach the stature of the likes of Danny McGrain or Tommy Gemmell in East End of Glasgow folklore, but, he took a huge step towards such stature in this game.

Mind you, the way football goes these days, he's more likely to be on his bike, to a massive salary from an EPL club than gilding his Celtic Park escutcheon, come the end of January's transfer window.

Another Croat to have possibly landed himself a big-money move is goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, Dynamo Zagreb will surely be inundated with offers in the window for the man who looks likely to be voted best goalkeeper in Qatar. Although, Aston Villa's Emiliano Martinez, after his penalty shoot-out heroics against The Netherlands is mounting a challenge.

Brazilian manager Tite made a fair point when he mentioned the crucial role Livakovic had played in his side's win – forgetting the wise words of dear old Nick Smith in the Rover comic of my youth. “It's goals that count;” and while Neymar might have equalled Pele's Brazilian record of 77 international goals – his failure to get a 78^th proved critical.

If you miss the number of chances Brazil did in this game, then you don't deserve to win. 'Twas ever thus in football. Still, this means, we get to see the wonderful Luka Modric one more time. What a player he has been.

IT IS a saying as old as the game: “No referee, no match.” The early Victorian pioneers, being in the main public School-educated gentlemen could sort out on-field disputes by agreement. However, once the lower orders, particularly those damned argumentative and permanently-upset Jocks got involved, well, the need for a neutral arbiter became apparent.

Since that day, the role of the man in black has been debated in the game. As with players, there have been good referees and bad ones – even some who are perceived as both at the same time: yes you Wullie Collum. Having tried it on two or three occasions, I would say, it's a thankless task, but somebody has to do it.

Received wisdom is that the best referees are seldom seen; they go about their business quietly and efficiently and it's all about the game and the result – not the 23^rd man on the park.

By that measurement, Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz, the man in the middle between Argentina and The Netherlands was a bad referee. His performance stunk as much as a meadow being fertilised by a dung-spreader on a warm Spring day. I wouldn't say he lost the plot – he never found it to begin with.

I could imagine the most-maligned Scottish referees, good guys such as the above-mentioned Mr Collum, Steven McLean, Kevin Clancy and Dougie “Four Jobs” Ross, sitting watching Senor Lahoz making a tit of himself on Friday night and summoning-up their inner Yosser Hughes – saying: “I could do that – gie's a job.”

That Spanish nyaff has a bigger ego than Michael Flatley. I could easily see him being run out of Auchinleck or Cumnock, should he ever be invited to referee a match which really mattered, such as the East Ayrshire Derby. That said - the Argentinians once again showed themselves to be less than gracious winners.

IF CROATIA knocking out Brazil was a shock, it was nothing to Morocco beating Portugal. Few, if anyone saw that one coming, which was as we now know, a tad unfair on a Moroccan team who have been the best defenders in the whole competition.

It's long been a thing in football – make yourself hard to break down and beat, and you have a chance, even if you have to go to penalties to win. Morocco are such a difficult to break down team and even with the skill in the French squad – Les Bleus face a tough examination in the semi-final.

Also, there is a long history of the better Moroccan players opting to play for France, going back to the great, original Black Pearl – Larni Ben Barek in the immediate post-war years.

This semi-final is a local derby for France – please park all your pre-conceptions at the door of the stadium. This one could go either way.

FINALLY, as most Scots knew before the whole circus kicked off, football is not coming home. This is a good England team, with a good international manager, that cannot be denied.

However, the way football is run in England, they never had, and, until the system changes, never will: Barring they get to play every game at Wembley – win the World Cup again.

Not one of the first-choice England team could be said to be the best player in his position in the English League; while none of them is on the top shelf of current players. They simply did not have the X-factor player – a Mbappe or a Messi or Modric that can make the difference in the tight games.

Southgate, or whoever has possession of the poisoned chalive that is being England manager, will continue to operate with one hand behind his back until the basic structure of the English game – geared to suit the big-money clubs, changes. And turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

England seemed to forget, in spite of being runners-up in the last European Championships, England has just been relegated out of the top strata of the European Nations League. Qatar was the wrong competition, at the wrong time for them. It's tough, but, suck it up.

By the way, the contentious “penalty” on Harry Kane, that wasn't given – great decision, because, the first of several fouls in the coming together was by Kane on the French defender. A great spot by the VAR team.

In any case – who is to say Kane might not have missed that one as well, had it been given?

England – yer tea's oot – suck it up.