Rodri: 'Scottish play is trash'
"Spain wants to fight, duel, but the match is not the one we expected," Rodri said after the match at Hampden Park on the evening of March 28. "The match was mainly Scotland's prolongation of time, sometimes four or five players were lying on the field. They were just busy buying time, provoking opponents and easily falling to the pitch. The referee should have done something to prevent this".
The Man City club midfielder also considers Scotland's play to be "trash". "In order not to slow down the game, they should not do that. What they show is not football," added Rodri. "But Scotland knew how to use their weapons, and we should have used our own."
In the second round of Group A qualifying for Euro 2024, Scotland soon took the lead in the seventh minute, when away defender Pedro Porro slipped, allowing Andy Robertson to stretch for Scott McTominay to open the scoring. Since then, the host has focused on defending and only kept the ball 25% of the time, but scored more at the beginning of the second half thanks to the midfielder playing for Man Utd. It was Scotland's first win over Spain since a World Cup qualifying match in 1984.
Referee Sandro Scharer took charge of this match, but suffered a thigh injury and was only on duty until the end of the first half. In the second half, the referee Lukas Fahndrich held the whistle until the end of the match.
When asked about the Scottish player's many times lying on the field, McTominay said: "The game was very difficult for the referee because the tempo was fast, the players worked hard and moved with high intensity. Sometimes we didn't. there is no other way but to fall down to be taken care of".
McTominay was also impressed with the atmosphere of Hampden Park. "I've never seen a scene like it, everyone was so happy," he said. "They will remember this game in 20, 30 years."
After two full wins, Scotland is at the top of Group A with six points, Spain is second in the group with three points. Georgia and Norway tied for one point, while Cyprus did not.
