Scotland v Azzurri: Well, That’ll Do

By: Martha | November 17th, 2007

Aw. First things first: A 2-1 win on an injury-time winner by Old Man Panucci means three points for the Azzurri: They’re going to be playing games that matter next summer. Woo hoo!

But … what the hell was the call that led to the free kick before the winning goal? You know, when Chiellini decked Alan Hutton, and Pirlo somehow ended up standing over the ball? Man. Alex McLeish was all kinds of classy at the final whistle, getting his team off and not saying a word to the referees, but you know that if that call (whatever the hell it was) had gone the other way and Scotland had won in injury time, we’d all be going out of our minds.

Anyway, the match was ugly, just as everyone expected, and was made even worse by the driving rain in which the entire first half was played. Playing the ball on the ground got tougher and tougher as the half went on, and it was getting to the point where the ball would skid and stop when the whistle finally blew and the rain let up. Happily for Italy, though, they started playing about 10 minutes before the Scots did, and had a laughably easy goal before the second minute was up: Di Natale received a throw-in, dropped it back to Luca Toni in the box, and he wrong-footed the defender and put it in the top of the net. Insta-lead for Italy (and Toni’s third goal in two games against the Scots), who kept pressing for the next ten minutes or so, albeit without anything to show for it.

As the rain kept falling, Scotland settled down and the match did too, being played out most by very muddy men in the middle of the park. The Scots were able to keep possession fine but never looked remotely dangerous, and often went backwards rather than forward when they had the ball. Set plays, however, were something else entirely, and the host scared the crap out of the Azzurri on several occasions. Italy were saved only by an involuntary Zambrotta handball on one, and then, just before half, a characteristically calm goal-line headball by Pirlo. Italy went into the locker room with a deserved 1-0 lead — they weren’t inspiring, but neither were their opponents, and the Azzurri seemed comfortable despite the dire conditions.

The second half started as the first had ended: Apart from a gorgeous early volley by Di Natale, neither team threatened much. Both had shots, but they were on goal very infrequently, and no one was very impressive in the final third. Eventually, though, Scotland realized they were about to spend the summer playing golf, and they started to attack more effectively, actually creating options going forward rather than skipping through and crossing the ball out of bounds. And, just as you started to think the Azzurri had the three pints sewn up, Scotland won a free kick on the edge of the box, and a probably offside Barry Ferguson brought Scotland level by bundling the ball into the back of the net in the 65th minute.

That goal woke up Hampden Park (Man, was it loud.) and the hosts, who needed a win to go through, kept attacking. They should have gone ahead in the 80th minute when Kicking Kenny Miller drew everyone to him on the right and crossed to a wide open James McFadden, who shot wide of a completely open goal. Alex McLeish looked like was about to kill himself, with good reason — that was Scotland’s ticket to the Euros and, after a miss like that, being made to pay is almost inevitable, isn’t it? The punishment almost came from Panucci’s head just minutes later, but he managed to squeeze Pirlo’s deep free kick just wide of the post. Clearly, though, the Old Man was saving his mojo for injury time, when he rose to meet another free kick, this time putting it home and earning Italy their first-ever win on Scottish soil.

[ScotlandIan's match report is up here.]

Edit: I haven’t found any clips yet, but I’ve been told by several people that McLeish’s pitchside class vanished by the time he was doing postmatch interviews. Pity. Also: Highlights are here. (thank you, Marco420).