Bryan Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 Scotland U21 3-2 Lithuania U21 Scotland's matchwinner Stephen Hughes Two goals in the final minute helped Scotland U21's beat their Lithuanian counterparts and reach the European Championship play-offs. In a remarkable finish, the Rangers man secured the three points that clinched the group ahead of Germany for Rainer Bonhof's men. Scotland looked destined for defeat after Marius Stankevicius scored in the fifth minute. The Scots then missed a penalty, before Lithuania's Aurimas Kucys scored from the spot to make it 2-0 following a foul by Steven Hammell. But Hammell gave Scotland hope on 79 minutes with a smart finish from close range after a penetrating cross. Then Stephen Hughes netted twice in injury time to send the Scots fans into raptures and leave Lithuania's coach Algimantas Liubinskas in tears. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scotland U21: Soutar, McCracken, Caldwell, Kennedy, Canero, Kerr, Williams, Stewart, Hammell, Maloney, Lynch. Subs: Gordon, Dowie, Montgomery, McManus, Hughes, Gallagher, Dillon. Lithuania U21: Karcemarskas, Paulauskas, Marius Stankevicius, Klimavacius, Majus, Savenas, Kucys, Radavicius, Radzinevicius, Grigalevicius, Deividas Cesnauskis. Subs: Kazlauskas, Grybauskas, Mikuckis, Panka, Kavaliauskas, Mikoliunas, Tarvydas, Mizigurskis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluetooner Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 Excellent results against a strong team, as they had kept back most of their full squad to play in it. Hopefully that will set us up for a win tmoro. Well done the younguns, they kept going till the very end which is excellent to see, and it seems that it was an entertaining match. (anyone who left early must be kicking themselves) Lets hope they can do well in the finals, and after showing what they can do against Germany, they shouldnt be scared of anyone. COME ON THE FULL TEAM TMORO. (p.s. i noticed sky sports dont have a report in their website about the game....... is this a typical English response to try and hide the fact of how well we did) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest juan villa-lobos ramirez Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 Top game. They kept their heads against another band of dubious players.Well deserved and well worth a bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyline Drifter Posted October 11, 2003 Share Posted October 11, 2003 I'll simply repeat what I posted on another site. It's easy to get carried away when an abject performance is rescued with a magnificent last five minutes. Basically, it was a poor performance. It's easy to get all excited when you win a 5 goal thriller having been 2 down with 11 minutes left and 1 down with the 90 minutes on the clock, especially when we probably HAD to win. I doubt the draw would have done as I don't think we'd have been among the 6 best runners up.Lithuania, who by all accounts were extremely lucky to win over there, scored early with a 30 yarder which somehow got past Souter despite not being all that well hit. It bounced in front of him and over him. They then proceeded to foul and dive their way through the next hour or so before scoring a penalty (and it WAS a penalty even Hammell himself said so) with 20 minutes left. Shortly after teh opener we had missed a penalty which was a pretty soft award in reality though my immediate reaction when I first saw it was to shout Penalty! Lynch's effort was poor though and an easy save. With 15 minutes to go Bonhoff sent on Stephen Hughes and Tam McManus and it was actually McManus more than 2 goal hero Hughes who sparked the comeback. First he put in a fabulous cross for Hammell to redeem himself with a back post finish then he crossed for Hughes to head the last minute equaliser. Finally, in injury time the Lithuanian keeper miscontrolled an innoccuous effort out for a corner and McManus took it quickly, the ball was sent in to Hughes who controlled on his chest brilliantly and shot home from 8 yards to mass delirium. Good points? Well, we won without playing at all well. Lithuania are not all that bad by any means but teams with any delusions about further progress in this competition shouldn't be needing last minute glory comebacks to despatch the likes of them. Caldwell at the back looked good but then was horribly at fault for the second goal. Hughes and McManus looked excellent when they came on though by that time the Lithuanians had retreated into their shells settling for 2-0. Maloney showed up well all night without ever getting the break of the ball. I couldn't fault anybody for their work-rate or perseverence in what turned out a bad tempered match with over 50 fouls and half a dozen bookings (should have been more but the Macedonian ref let some shockers go and bottled second yellows for some) but there just wasn't any inspriation at all (Maloney, Hughes and McManus apart). Oh and for all the Lithuanians were niggly and petty all night, the worst challenge of the game by far was a shocking leg breaker of a stamp by Simon Lynch which should certainly have got him a red card from a ref no more than ten yards away who astonishingly waved play on. The poor devil who received it then got roundly booed for play-acting by the Tartan Army! That said in the old "boy cried wolf" terms, they brought that on themselves by their earlier histrionics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mythicalcreature Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 Looked like it was a very good game. Hughes scored 2 crackers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyline Drifter Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 Looked like it was a very good game. Hughes scored 2 crackers. Did you actually SEE the game MC? Take the last ten minutes out and it was one of the worst games I've seen in quite some time, though probably not as bad as yesterday's at Hampden! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 To be fair, when your main source of comparison is Clyde... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 12, 2003 Author Share Posted October 12, 2003 fair enough it may not have been great but the u21s have done great in this group, and we did beat the germans away from home. The future of scotland is bright and with Rainer Bonhof they can only get better. They have also only lost 3 games under Rainer Bonhof(all away) , and getting a result when playing badly is the sign of a great team. So lets not be to down on a poor performance. Also we have a great chance of winning the u21 championship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyline Drifter Posted October 12, 2003 Share Posted October 12, 2003 fair enough it may not have been great but the u21s have done great in this group, and we did beat the germans away from home. The future of scotland is bright and with Rainer Bonhof they can only get better. They have also only lost 3 games under Rainer Bonhof(all away) , and getting a result when playing badly is the sign of a great team. So lets not be to down on a poor performance. Also we have a great chance of winning the u21 championship. Agree 100% Bryan. But also, let's not claim it was a great performance or great game when it patently wasn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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