Football Italia
·23 June 2024
Football Italia
·23 June 2024
Scotland have officially been eliminated from EURO 2024 after a heartbreaking last minute loss to Hungary, although the Scottish contingent were adamant they should have had a penalty 12 minutes before time.
It means that Marco Rossi is the first Italian coach at EURO 2024 to secure a spot in the knockout rounds.
Scotland needed a win to have any realistic chance of qualifying for the knockouts. Switzerland and Germany’s 1-1 draw meant that they would have finished third whatever the result against Hungary, but four points would have put Scotland in with a shot of entering the round of 16 as one of the four best third-placed sides.
As for Hungary, it means that they will have to wait to see if they have done enough to qualify from third place.
It was a cagey affair for the most part, as both sides knew they needed a win to have any chance of qualifying for the knockouts. Scotland did not register their first shot on target until injury time.
Rossi had to do without Barnabas Varga for the final quarter of the match, as he was stretchered off with a serious injury in the 74th minute.
Minutes later, Scotland were controversially denied a penalty after Scott McTominay slipped Stuart Armstrong through one-on-one with Peter Gulacsi in the Hungarian net. Armstrong was seemingly bundled over, but the officials were adamant that no foul had been committed.
Then, in the final minute of injury time, Kevin Csoboth latched onto Roland Sallai’s cross into the area to send the Hungarian supporters into bedlam.
Csoboth 90+10′.