Well, it wasn't to be - another heroic failure. You can't fault our team for effort, and you've got to give our wee nation a hell of a lot of credit for keeping the excitement going almost all the way to the end.
Of course the Italian winner should never have been - the award of a free kick to the Italians was mystifying - but you could also point to what seemed like a perfectly good second 'goal' in the first half that would have effectively killed the game off. A couple of dubious decisions then, and it looks like the standard of international refereeing is gettting as bad as it is domestically. I've witnessed more than a few breathtaking refereeing mistakes at Easter Road this season, dodgy decisions that have changed the outcome of games. Mistakes can cost matches, but when it's the officials and not the players who make them it's much harder to stomach.
Anyway, hard luck to the Scotland squad. No-one expected anything from us when the draw was made, and to achieve what this team has is some performance: beating France twice and running the World Champions so close is no disgrace. Watching the much-vaunted Italians running down the clock and their relieved celebrations following the final whistle, showed just how much Scotland tested them.
The draw for the World Cup qualifiers is made next week, and the roller-coaster ride that is supporting Scotland starts all over again. The joy, the tears, the ultimate disappointment - I can harldy wait!
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