The best team won and Scotland got what they deserved on a night of misery in Stuttgart for the Tartan army watching their side go out of the Euros in a blaze of failure.
Failure to have a single shot on target within the regulation ninety minutes, failure to take the game to Hungary as promised in the pre-match hype and failure from a manager who erred on the side of caution in two games against two countries we were more than capable of beating in the group if positive changes were made earlier.
Make no mistake about it, Hungary were the better team. They created more chances, had more efforts on goal and were able to take their opportunity to kill a desperate Scotland side off in the dying seconds of injury time to send us packing.
The performance against Switzerland gave us faint hope that Scotland could somehow play football on the front foot and take the game to the opposition, but the reality was a tentative passing game with absolutely no penetration in the first forty-five minutes. It was Hungary that produced the two best moments of creative play in that first period with Gunn forced to push Bolla’s shot to safety early in the game.
The Tartan army, who had saved and spent thousands of pounds of their hard earned cash to get to Germany were short changed by a side unable to break down the Hungarian formation. Surely there would be changes early in the second half to try and break the lines?
The second half produced a similar pattern with Che Adams shot off target after fifty-three minutes the only effort worthy of excitement for the hordes of Scotland fans desperate for the manger to bring on reinforcements to change the pattern of the game.
Clarke refused to budge on the formation and his tactics, which now seemed to hinge on some kind of hopeful opportunity of a late chance to score from a group of players continuing to pass the ball in front of a Hungarian side that bore little resemblance to the ‘Mighty Magyars’ of the early 1950’s.
The crowd fell silent with a worrying injury to Hungary’s Barnabas Varga, a moment that seemed to galvanise his fellow teammates to win the game for their wounded soldier. Scotland, on the other hand were shouting for what looked to me like a legitimate claim for a penalty when late substitute, Stuart Armstrong was upended in the box, but the Argentine referee and the Spanish VAR assistant were unmoved by loud and desperate claims to take another look at the challenge.
Armstrong’s arrival prompted a flurry of late changes by the Scotland manager, but it was too little, too late as their desperation for a winner left gaps at the back which Hungary duly exploited with Kevin Csoboth’s winner in the 100th minute of the match.
I didn’t like our manager Steve Clarke’s attack on the Argentine referee Facundo Tello for not awarding a penalty in the post match interviews, it smacked of a manager trying to deflect criticism of his shot-shy team and his tactics which failed miserably over all three games.
If praise was forthcoming for his achievements in getting us to the Euros, criticism is fair in not seizing the opportunity to be brave and create history by performing at a major football tournament watched by millions of Scots at home and thousands here in Germany.
The only credit attached to this woeful campaign for Scotland is the conduct of the Tartan army. The majority decked in kilts and saltires won many friends across Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart. Sadly their march forward to each venue was not matched by the team in all three games at this tournament.
The fall out from our exit will be painful. There will be calls for the manager’s head and the blooding of new younger players. The worry for me is our options for change are thin on the ground both in the dug out and on the park. I said before this tournament, we can’t defend and we can’t score goals. Those two key elements are why we are deservedly out of this competition.
Get Instant Access To The Latest Football News To Your Phone
