scotland
every neutral who watched scotland v italy must have ended up rooting for scotland.
i only watched from perhaps the 35th minute. italy was already 1-0 up.
whichever of the trio, scotland, italy or france, go through doesn't matter to me. of course, one would always prefer more drama, in the form of qualification being decided only on the last day.
but from the second half onwards, only one team was trying to play football- scotland.
when barry ferguson slammed the ball in, it was madness. it was sheer madness. looking at hampden park on a television screen is already enough; i really wonder what it was like there.
then italy brought on chiellini for camoranesi, a defensive player for an attacking player. that tells you their game plan- hang on to a draw, because their last game is against faroe islands, and if you can't beat faroe islands, you are really finished.
scotland pressed on. kenny miller squared the ball for someone to slide it horribly wide.
and then, in either the last minute or so, chiellini clearly barged the defender off. if it wasn't a freekick for the scots, it shouldn't be a freekick at all. but amazingly, the linesman flagged, and the freekick was given to italy. panucci headed it in. and italy were through.
if that isn't robbery, i don't know what is. man u fans, take note.
italy got it lucky, because they won the game when they weren't looking to win it. if it had ended in a draw, at least scotland could still cling on to the small hope that france would lose to ukraine. but they were denied even that hope by that dubious officiating.
if you were a neutral, your heart would really go out to scotland tonight.
when the whistle was blown, the italians celebrated. but perhaps they shouldn't have done it in the manner they did. i mean, yes unfortunate things have happened back home, and at least they can bring some cheer back, but they should show some respect to scotland, and acknowledge that they got away with it. they shouldn't have stayed on the pitch, because that last bit of the game was a farce.
but at the end of the day, scotland can only look to the georgia game: they made things difficult for themselves by screwing up then. and of course, they made things even harder by conceding in the 2nd minute.
perhaps it was better that italy won. better to end it once and for all, rather than harbor false hopes: at least scotland would not be disappointed, should ukraine fail to beat france.
i only watched from perhaps the 35th minute. italy was already 1-0 up.
whichever of the trio, scotland, italy or france, go through doesn't matter to me. of course, one would always prefer more drama, in the form of qualification being decided only on the last day.
but from the second half onwards, only one team was trying to play football- scotland.
when barry ferguson slammed the ball in, it was madness. it was sheer madness. looking at hampden park on a television screen is already enough; i really wonder what it was like there.
then italy brought on chiellini for camoranesi, a defensive player for an attacking player. that tells you their game plan- hang on to a draw, because their last game is against faroe islands, and if you can't beat faroe islands, you are really finished.
scotland pressed on. kenny miller squared the ball for someone to slide it horribly wide.
and then, in either the last minute or so, chiellini clearly barged the defender off. if it wasn't a freekick for the scots, it shouldn't be a freekick at all. but amazingly, the linesman flagged, and the freekick was given to italy. panucci headed it in. and italy were through.
if that isn't robbery, i don't know what is. man u fans, take note.
italy got it lucky, because they won the game when they weren't looking to win it. if it had ended in a draw, at least scotland could still cling on to the small hope that france would lose to ukraine. but they were denied even that hope by that dubious officiating.
if you were a neutral, your heart would really go out to scotland tonight.
when the whistle was blown, the italians celebrated. but perhaps they shouldn't have done it in the manner they did. i mean, yes unfortunate things have happened back home, and at least they can bring some cheer back, but they should show some respect to scotland, and acknowledge that they got away with it. they shouldn't have stayed on the pitch, because that last bit of the game was a farce.
but at the end of the day, scotland can only look to the georgia game: they made things difficult for themselves by screwing up then. and of course, they made things even harder by conceding in the 2nd minute.
perhaps it was better that italy won. better to end it once and for all, rather than harbor false hopes: at least scotland would not be disappointed, should ukraine fail to beat france.
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