Gordon Strachan’s side were expected to beat Malta, but a promising start from Scotland gave way to a nervy defensive performance.
Advertisement
According to the former Celtic and West Ham striker, who remarkably was capped just five times despite a prolific scoring record north and south of the border, Strachan’s defensive outlook has led to the deflation and general indifference that has so far permeated the build-up to Sunday’s World Cup qualifying campaign opener against Malta at the Ta’ Qali National Stadium.
Robert Snodgrass showed what Scotland missed in the Euro 2016 campaign with a hat-trick as the visitors streaked clear of their hosts in the second half.
“I just wanted to get it into an area – to the back post – and lucky enough it went in”, Snodgrass said. I had to change. “It makes it extra special and we urge them to stick with us because they’ll be vitally important if we do want to qualify”.
Malta coach Pietro Ghedin credited Scotland’s attacking play and said his players would need to reflect on how they lost their grip on the game.
“We were too wide open in the first half”. “He’s wanting to play a set way but when you’ve got Steven Fletcher then you’ve not got any pace up front”. Fletcher got on the end of Ritchie’s deflected cross to head home in the 78th minute.
It’s a complete and utter nonsense to have a side who only lose 1-0 to Croatia at 176th in the world.
Scotland boss Gordon Strachan praised the mental strength of his players after a vastly-improved second-half performance.
Malta finished with nine men as Luke Gambin was sent off late on for lashing out at Snodgrass.
“I think we’ve got hard games”.
“It went from everyone enjoying themselves to Scotland fans thinking “I’ve seen this before” and Malta fans thinking “this could be the night”. They had to deal with that. I’d like to see a lot more freedom in the Scotland team.
Malta should be easy pickings for Scotland, even in the heat that is expected on the Mediterranean island, but they can not underestimate the minnows as we have already watched Maltese side Birkirkara embarrassingly dump out Hearts 2-1 on aggregate in Europe earlier this season. “And that was a crisis”.
Scotland played on as Schembri lay prostrate near the halfway line following a challenge by Hanley and Martin converted Ritchie’s low cross from eight yards.
“I have been excited for a while, the last couple of weeks, and it’s built up even more since we met up on Tuesday”.
The Hull player sent Hogg the wrong way to give Scotland a cushion in the 61st minute.
Advertisement
Norwich City goalkeeper Michael McGovern played the full match and striker Kyle Lafferty played the opening 59 minutes before being replaced by Josh Magennis.
