Credit: Twitter
The European giants Spain suffered an embarrassing 2-0 defeat against Scotland at the Hampden Park in the UEFA Euro 2024 Qualifiers match, courtesy of Scott McTominay’s brace. It was Scotland’s first win against the Red Fury since 1984 and they have solidified their position at top of the table in the Group A. However, Rodri wasn’t happy with the home side’s style of play and expressed his frustration after the game.
With the win against Spain, Scotland claimed the top spot in the Group A while the Red Fury are placed at the second spot with three points in two matches. They are followed by Georgia one point in one game, Norway one point in two games and Cyprus (0).
In a post match interview, Spanish midfielder Rodri blasted Scotland’s style of play and termed it 'rubbish'. He said "For me, it’s a bit rubbish because it’s always wasting time. They provoke you. They always fall. This is for me, not football. The referee has to take part of this and he says nothing."
Further, the Manchester City star mentioned that they will deal with Scotland’s strategy next time. He said, "It’s frustrating because we want to win, because you waste time, you waste time. But they have their weapons and we will learn for the next time."
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He went on to admit that they had the quality and possession to get a result but they failed to do so. Meanwhile, the Scottish players were also unhappy about the antics of the Spanish players and accused them of going down rather too easily to get more freekicks or penalties. When the 26-year-old Spaniard was asked about this he said, "No, we want to go into battle and we always fight but this is not about fighting. It’s about wasting time, four or five players on the floor, these kinds of situations."
Scotland’s match-winner Scott McTominay also admitted that there was some unsportsmanlike behavior going on but it was from both teams. He said "I feel everyone on the pitch was at it, diving around, making the game slow. It wasn’t really a clean game in terms of everyone getting up and getting on with little fouls. It was a difficult night for the referee because everyone was making the most of everything. But sometimes that’s the way it has got to be, you have got to do stuff like that when you want to keep hold of a lead."
Scotland have now won five games on the trot at the Hampden and are looking good for the Euros. The 26-year-old McTominay has now scored four times in his last three games for Scotland and he will be looking to be a key player for Manchester United with Eriksen out with injury.
The European qualifiers will return in June as Scotland will face Norway in an away game before hosting Georgia. On the other hand, Spain will host Italy in the Nations League semi-final on June 15.
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