2-1 Loss To Italy Ends Scotland's Dream Run

The Age

Monday November 19, 2007

Roddy Fosyth, Glasgow

SCOTLAND'S heroic bid to reach the finals of Euro 2008 came to a crushing end when it was mugged early and late by Italy, which now moves on with France to Austria and Switzerland next year.

The world champion struck through Luca Toni in the opening moments and, after Barry Ferguson had levelled midway through the second half, an atrocious decision by assistant referee Juan Jimenez against Alan Hutton permitted Andrea Pirlo to plant a free kick on to the head of Christian Panucci.

The full-back floated the ball away from goalkeeper Craig Gordon and into the net at the far post to kill Scottish hopes in the most desperate fashion after a campaign that had exceeded all but the craziest hopes. The game itself was a nerve-shredding affair, yet it also could have gone Scotland's way when James McFadden missed an open goal with the score at 1-1.

Scotland's manager Alex McLeish opted for what he hoped would be the smothering effect of a five-man midfield, with McFadden allotted the punishing task of taking the game to the notoriously mean Italian defence by himself. However, the insurance policy was a shredded document exactly 68 seconds after kick-off, thanks to the predatory Toni.

With their first thrust, the Italians forced a throw-in, from which Antonio di Natale was allowed to gather unmarked inside the box, to swivel and tee up Toni, whose slashing shot blurred past Gordon on its way to the net.

Matters almost became irredeemably worse straight from the restart as Scotland again squandered possession for Toni to play Mauro Camoranese in for a shot in almost identical fashion.

On this occasion, however, the Milan midfielder slashed his shot over. Had that gone in, the queues for refunds would have started to form immediately. Even so, the shock of falling behind so early - and for the first time in six home games - was so numbing that Scotland could not get its limbs or thoughts in motion towards Italy's goal.

Gordon was left exposed once more at a thrust from Toni and did well to get a hand to the angled shot and turn it into the side net. As the quarter-hour mark passed, the Scots at last shook their heads, cleared their befuddled senses and got close enough to Gianluigi Buffon to see what he looked like below the woolly hat he sported as protection against the inclement elements.

It was not until the 15-minute mark that Lee McCulloch, lurking near the edge of the Italian box, stabbed at a loose ball and saw it rebound from defender Gianluca Zambrotta's arm. Referee Manuel Gonzalez, however, was unsighted, as was his other assistant, and the penalty was denied.

Scotland did win a corner kick, though, and it immediately exposed vulnerability in the Italian rearguard as Hutton found the freedom to meet the ball with a header that beat Buffon but slipped fractionally on the wrong side of the far post.

But another crisis was to come for Scotland and again defensive hesitancy played its part, although credit was due also to the classic Italian one-touch play that cut through and left Massimo Ambrosini with only Gordon to beat. This he could not do as the goalkeeper produced a crucial block from which the ball spun to di Natale to shoot home - only to be judged offside.

If he was, it was only by the most imperceptible margin, but the point was that Scotland had avoided another likely fatal cut and, indeed, it came close to levelling before the break. Another corner found David Weir in space and he steered his header beyond Buffon, only to find Andrea Pirlo stationed on the line to clear.

The restart provided no respite, but Ferguson's third goal in a 43-cap career brought the match back to the boil before the awful denouement played itself out.

Along with Italy and France, Spain also secured Euro 2008 passage, while England's slim hopes received a big boost from Israel's 2-1 upset of Russia at Tel Aviv.

After last month's defeat in Moscow, England's fate was taken out of its hands but the Israel result made it master of its destiny once again.

A win or draw against Croatia in its final group E game this week will be enough to take it through, even if, as expected, the Russians beat minnow Andorra.

In Tel Aviv, Elyaniv Barda sent Israel into an early lead, with Diniyar Bilyaletdinov equalising for Russia on the hour mark before Israel striker Omer Golan grabbed an injury-time winner.

Russia's coach, Guus Hiddink, interviewed on Sky Sports, said England was capable of getting a result against Croatia at the new Wembley.

"It's a blow for Russia because we were very close. We were very naive in the first 20-25 minutes. All the opportunities were there. We were pressing forward second half but we were not fine-tuned in the ultimate and final pass."

In group F, Northern Ireland is still in with a chance after beating Denmark 2-1, David Healy grabbing the winner with 11 minutes left to cap a marvellous fight-back. It took Healy's tally of goals in qualifying to 13 - a record, overtaking the previous best tally of 12 set by Croatia's Davor Sukor for Euro '96. -- TELEGRAPH, AFP

THROUGH TO EURO 2008

Teams that already have qualified for next year's European Championship

Austria (co-host)

Croatia

Czech Republic

France

Germany

Greece

Italy

The Netherlands

Poland

Romania

Spain

Switzerland (co-host)

© 2007 The Age

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