“I’m proud about the players. They have been a bit unfortunate”. That’s over a year’s work. And then we got in and found out the other result (from Dublin).
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“Poland are fully aware of what we’ve done against Germany and the confidence we’ll get from beating them”.
“Poland’s second goal was more like an American football Hail Mary where you just chuck it in and hope for the best”.
“Sometimes there’s not a lot you can do about that”.
The Poles, safe in the knowledge victory would claim their place in France, seemed content to sit back and utilise their forward line’s incredible pace to hit Scotland on the break. “It’s hard to recover from things like that”.
The Scots host Poland in Euro2016 qualifying at Hampden Park and Lewandowski believes any unsportsmanlike behaviour from the home defenders will get them in hot water with the referee, essentially benefiting his team.
Maybe it was for the selfie stoppage in the 88th minute, as the Daily Record and frustrated Scotland fans purport, but also maybe not. And Lewandowski cut the cord in the dying seconds.
“Pointless is probably the game on Sunday against Gibraltar”. Hopefully we can have exactly the same tomorrow and really lift the nation again. “To overcome that we have to be more clinical over the next couple of years”.
Gordon Strachan’s team had defended superbly for 30 minutes following Fletcher’s strike, with Marshall twice denying long-range efforts from Grzegorz Krychowiak, but they failed to see the job through in the dying seconds.
“I don’t read articles about myself”. They’re the priority at the moment, those guys in there and my coaching staff. As I’ve said in a few previous columns, you have to look at that defeat in Georgia as the one that hurt us the most.
Russell, making his competitive debut, flashed a shot over the bar and then set up Steven Fletcher with a good ball across the goal, only just evading the stretching striker.
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Strachan’s side crashed out of qualification by conceding a last-minute goal to draw 2-2 with Poland in Glasgow, which left them six points short of third-placed Republic of Ireland, with one game to play. When you lose a goal like that late on it’s a real low blow to everyone in the dressing room. “He’s in a bracket of players not far behind [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo and he’ll not be easy to stop, but we have to cope with it”. It will be a nice way to bring the curtain down on a campaign which promised so much before ending as it so often has in the last two decades – with agonising failure and disappointment. But the Bournemouth man said: “Scoring’s nice but it means nothing”.
