Last night Scotland recorded one of the most impressive wins in World football in years by beating fellow Group B hopefuls France in the Parc des Princes. They secured the win when Everton striker James McFadden unleashed an almighty blast from all of 35 yards. This heroic result has left Scotland top of the group ahead of both France and Italy and with only three games to play ,many Scots are dreaming that maybe they might just finally end the long wait to qualify for a major tournament. At the beginning of this qualifying for Euro 2008, I looked at the groups and thought that Scotland would be lucky to finish fourth in it because they faced side like France, Italy and the Ukraine all good sides.If I remember correctly it wasn't that long ago that scotland were, in most people's eyes crap but ever since they got rid of the likes of Berti Vogts and appointed Walter Smith and more recently Alex McCleish that they have started looking like a side that can qualify for the European championships and the World Cups. With no disrespect, Scotland have no really good players but what they have is spirit. They have players that are willing to fight for any cause wheter it be against the Faroes or the French the battle.
Like I said before, I didn't give Scotland a hope of qualifying for next summers tournament but from what they've shown me, it has made me think again. When Scotland defeated France last October it made the footballing world sit up but everyone just expected that this was a one off and that they just got lucky, but last nights win against France proved that this wasn't a fluke and that Scotland really ought to be taken seriously.
I do understand that Scotland still face an uphill task in qualifying from this group but they are in a terrific position now to go and progress from this victory. They face a tricky tie against Ukraine in October before playing Georgia away and then finally back to Hampden to play, what could be the key match of the whole qualifying, against Italy. Now, I fully expect them to beat Georgia but I do think the Ukraine match will be harder but hopefully by the end of those two games they won't need to beat the World champions to progress to Euro 2008.
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