Spain and Rodri complain after Euro 2024 qualifiers defeat: Scotland style is rubbish and grass is too long | Football News

March 28, 2023 admin

Spain captain Rodri criticised Scotland’s “rubbish” approach to football after his team were on the end of a Hampden defeat in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

The Manchester City player accused Scotland of time-wasting and provocation after Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay hit a double to earn Scotland a 2-0 victory and a first win over Spain in 39 years.

Spain had not been beaten in Euro qualifying since 2014, when they were beaten 2-1 by Slovakia ahead of the 2016 tournament in France.

They had won 34 of their last 38 European qualifying matches, with three draws, but at Hampden Park they looked unsettled.

Rodri skippered a side featuring eight changes from their previous game, and he criticised the way Scotland went about their work.

“We did many good things to win,” he said on Viaplay. “We conceded easy goals – this is football, if you concede easy goals you are penalised.

“It’s the way they play, but for me it’s rubbish, always wasting time, provoking you, always they fall. For me, this is not football. The referee has to take on this, but he says nothing.

“We will learn for the next time. We want to go for duels, for battles – we always fight, but this is not about fighting. It’s about wasting time – four, five players on the floor, but this depends on the referee, not on us.

“Today we did many good things, but what’s important is the goal, and we didn’t score.”

David Garcia, who was making his Spain debut, also blamed the results on the length of the pitch at Hampden.

He told Marca: “We already saw that the grass was too long, and that cost us. We can’t make excuses for that, we have to look at ourselves and fix what we did wrong today.”

Opta stats: A first win over Spain since 1984, five wins in a row at home – Scotland’s stunning night in stats…

Scotland earned their first win over Spain since November 1984 (3-1 in a World Cup qualifier), while this was just their third ever competitive victory against them (1957, 1984 and 2023).
Scotland have won five consecutive home matches for the first time since September 2006-October 2007, when they won six in a row between tenures of Walter Smith and Alex McLeish.
Spain suffered their first defeat in a Euro qualifying match since October 2014 (1-2 v Slovakia), having won 17 of their last 19 such fixtures (D2) and never conceding more than once in a game in this run.