Scotland pull off major shock

Scotland almost pulled off a major shock in the latest Euro 2016 qualifying matches after a 2-1 defeat against Germany. Despite playing against the reigning world champions, Scotland looked far hungrier than ever and almost claimed a draw. Bayern Munich forward Thomas Müller once again came to Germany’s rescue after scoring twice in a half to get this victory. Anya’s goal in the 66th minute had shocked Germany, who were coming into the match on the back of a 4-2 humiliation at the hands of Argentina in a friendly match. This match exposed Germany’s weakness in defence and Scotland also looked to play in a similar way.

Former Everton striker James McFadden, who had appeared for the Scottish national team in 48 appearances in a career spanning from 2002 to 2010, says that he is confident that the team under Gordon Strachan will be able to reach the Euro 2016. It has been several years since Scotland last appeared in a major international tournament, but the arrival of the former Celtic manager has boosted their hopes. Even though Germany had much of the ball and also created numerous opportunities compared to Scotland’s just two shots on target, McFadden believes that Scotland can take a lot of positives from this defeat.

“I thought it was a very good performance, especially in the second half, and the fact that we’re all disappointed that we never took something from the game shows how well we’ve done. We’ve got to aim higher especially after last night’s performance. Germany did enough to win the game but I think we had a chance to take something from it. We’ve got to take the confidence going into the rest of the games and aim for second and guarantee the qualification outright,” said the 31-year-old, who is without a club after being released by Motherwell.