Jump to content

***France v Scotland - Official Match Thread***


Mr Sifter

Recommended Posts

5 minutes ago, livi said:

Thought Brown has been ok.  Better option that Adams based on this game.

Just a pity we don’t have a real top class striker with some Scottish blood in him. Brown doesn’t score goals at club level and he’s not the answer either.  If Shankland could find a bit extra, maybe a lot extra. Nisbet Adams Dykes all pretty meh 🫤 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 202
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Luckies1874

    22

  • iantjambo

    12

  • coatbridgejambo

    9

  • Pasquale for King

    8

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

7 minutes ago, Go for it 1308 said:

Lapland it is then....and we learn nothing 🤷. I bet if you ask anyone of the Scotland players who they would rather play ....the 'best' teams in the world and learn from it, or Butcher, Baker, Candle stick maker and learn phuck all ? 

What do you think they would all say?

I can't see any of our players coming off that pitch the night and saying I enjoyed that and learned alot. It's like one extreme to another what your are saying play France or as you say lapland, plenty other teams of quality that are not off the scale ridiculous to play that we would be able to learn from. You don't learn shit from getting absolutely schooled like that. Same as you don't learn shit hammering a team 10-0. Competitive games when you learn this was not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Jambo in Bathgate said:

Absolute rubbish. Italy played like Italy. Except this time England had the players to beat them. 

I have to agree with this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were too loose tonight and gave them too much space in the first half. The players will definitely have learnt a long from that game, against a very good French team, and it will stand us in good stead in Germany.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Go for it 1308
16 minutes ago, kingantti1874 said:


You are making this point very aggressively? Calm down it’s not that big of a deal bud.  It’s just an opinion.👍🏻 

 

as regards your question sure they would say one thing but privately think another. 
 

In terms of alternatives it’s not France or Lapland . Plenty of teams in between who we could play, who’d present a challenge and we could hope to see a positive performance. 
 

this was always damage limitations. Still, only an opinion.  A not a meaningful one really.  
 

cheers 

Apologies if you thought I was being aggressive mate, I wasn't....probably just frustration.  Anytime I've heard a professional footballer being asked on this topic...they always say the want to play against the best players in the world... so they can learn from it and watch it after and take something from it to improve their game. I've never heard a player say " I don't want to play against them, because they're too good"

Just my opinion 👍

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, GYL said:

Belgium, Portugal then Spain...in that order for me 🤷


Portugal have got more firepower than both Spain and Germany for me. They started the other night with a front 4 of Ronaldo, Leao, Felix and Fernandes and brought on Bernardo Silva and Jota. Their squad is ridiculous. I’d rather play both Spain on what we’ve seen and Germany on all recent form than any of France, England and Portugal. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Go for it 1308
3 minutes ago, Go for it 1308 said:

Apologies if you thought I was being aggressive mate, I wasn't....probably just frustration.  Anytime I've heard a professional footballer being asked on this topic...they always say the want to play against the best players in the world... so they can learn from it and watch it after and take something from it to improve their game. I've never heard a player say " I don't want to play against them, because they're too good"

Just my opinion 👍

Ps. I never ever thought that I would agree with this twat and that he would agree with me😢😢😢

Screenshot_20231017_223330_Chrome.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, JimmyCant said:

Just a pity we don’t have a real top class striker with some Scottish blood in him. Brown doesn’t score goals at club level and he’s not the answer either.  If Shankland could find a bit extra, maybe a lot extra. Nisbet Adams Dykes all pretty meh 🫤 

Shankland is a very very long way off being a possible solution for Scotland. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, JimmyCant said:

Just a pity we don’t have a real top class striker with some Scottish blood in him. Brown doesn’t score goals at club level and he’s not the answer either.  If Shankland could find a bit extra, maybe a lot extra. Nisbet Adams Dykes all pretty meh 🫤 

If Shankland was to move to Rangers I’m quite sure he will stand a better chance of going to Germany, this won’t go away. Lowry scored tonight as well, wouldn’t surprise me if he moves back to Rangers in January.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Fozzyonthefence said:


He certainly is and I was enjoying watching him play (as I had England on my coupon!) but what a disgusting bit of cheating / play acting when he went down holding his face after a wee shove in the chest.
 

Embarrassing stuff as was the reaction from Dion Dublin who just just chuckled and said something like “Jude falling over there, up you get Jude”.  Had an Italian player done that he would have slated him and rightly so. Also the sort of thing that players should be getting hammered for by VAR, cheating to try getting an opponent sent off.

Correct. 
No criticism nor hardly a comment at all from the commentators.
Italian equivalent would’ve been ripped to shreds.wouldn’t have been so bad but you could clearly see the verbal exchange afterwards between the players too and Bellingham kept repeating he’d hit him in the face! Should be embarrassed about that - a talented player who really shouldn’t have to act like such a cheating fud
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way if Italy go into the play offs and therefore end up in pot 4 whilst we win our 2 games (or get 4pts but beat Austria on goal difference) and clinch a pot 2 spot on December 2nd this could happen...... :vrface:

France 

Scotland 

Netherlands 

Italy 

 

:rofl:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Carter said:

Shankland is a very very long way off being a possible solution for Scotland. 

If he somehow (please please 🙏) starts recapturing last season’s scoring form for us then he’d at least be in with a shout surely as there’s little competition of any quality in his position. 
we’ll need to play to his strengths though, but that’s for a different thread 🤣

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Luckies1874 said:

By the way if Italy go into the play offs and therefore end up in pot 4 whilst we win our 2 games (or get 4pts but beat Austria on goal difference) and clinch a pot 2 spot on December 2nd this could happen...... :vrface:

France 

Scotland 

Netherlands 

Italy 

 

:rofl:

 

😳🤣 Bejesus 🤣

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've played 3 teams in the worlds top 10 in the last 3 games and we'll learn a lot. 

 

We were poor against England in the main, but we took a lot of lessons from it and applied it to the Spain game where we gave a good performance. 

 

Tonight we actually played well for large spells but lost 4 soft goals which is unlike us under Clarke. However it was also nowhere near our full strength team yet we get value from seeing a few players show up well and that they can be reliable options.

 

We could've taken easier friendlies, no doubt, but we are now in the top tier of the Nations League and in the Euros. We are going to face good teams competitively, it will do us no harm in trying to figure out where we need to improve against similar sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully Clarkes assertion they’ll learn lots by playing the best is how it pans out rather than knocking our momentum. 🤞 

Good to see zander getting the experience. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale for King
2 hours ago, spacerjoe said:

To be fair to Porteous, he's been pretty decent for Scotland.

 

Urghh, that doesn't feel good.

 

Any defender is capable of being destroyed by Mbappe though, so either way I wouldn't look to much into it.

No he really hasn’t, go and watch any of the games he’s played and watch him not the ball, don’t listen to the commentators just concentrate on his game. Awful on debut, clueless against England. The Spanish goals he’s pointing at Patterson to mark someone who is behind him and watches Morata run behind Hendry, the own goal he’s stationary and then he cant get back and scores the OG. Hes way out of his depth at this level but so are the other CHs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale for King
32 minutes ago, Luckies1874 said:

By the way if Italy go into the play offs and therefore end up in pot 4 whilst we win our 2 games (or get 4pts but beat Austria on goal difference) and clinch a pot 2 spot on December 2nd this could happen...... :vrface:

France 

Scotland 

Netherlands 

Italy 

 

:rofl:

 

Hahaha looks about right 😆

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, FJT said:

If he somehow (please please 🙏) starts recapturing last season’s scoring form for us then he’d at least be in with a shout surely as there’s little competition of any quality in his position. 
we’ll need to play to his strengths though, but that’s for a different thread 🤣

I think when you're as short of pace as Shankland is you really need to make sure you're in the best shape possible. Only he'll know whether that's the case. I look at Boyce and he looks in far better physical shape than Shankland. 

 

Even domestically this season I haven't watched Shankland and felt he could really rip it up against what he was faced with. I'm including Dundee, St Mirren and Kilmarnock in that assessment. Some real run of the mill CB's amongst that lot but you've never got a sense that he looked a real level above what he was directly up against. Hibs are rotten defensively but I never felt Shankland looked a real threat against them. 

 

I'll be very surprised if Shankland makes the Euro squad. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

No he really hasn’t, go and watch any of the games he’s played and watch him not the ball, don’t listen to the commentators just concentrate on his game. Awful on debut, clueless against England. The Spanish goals he’s pointing at Patterson to mark someone who is behind him and watches Morata run behind Hendry, the own goal he’s stationary and then he cant get back and scores the OG. Hes way out of his depth at this level but so are the other CHs. 

His debut was away in Ukraine and he was decent.

 

He's got 8 caps, we've won 5 and drawn 1 and kept clean sheets in 5. He's no a world beater, but he's played well enough in a good run. The CH's might not be great individually but are a good unit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, Luckies1874 said:

By the way if Italy go into the play offs and therefore end up in pot 4 whilst we win our 2 games (or get 4pts but beat Austria on goal difference) and clinch a pot 2 spot on December 2nd this could happen...... :vrface:

France 

Scotland 

Netherlands 

Italy 

 

:rofl:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jambo in Bathgate
1 hour ago, DS98 said:


No sure about that. That 3rd goal was the most un-Italian defending I’ve ever seen. 

No it was one player determined to

get to the ball after being fouled. Italian on his arse. Kane a winner. Held off defender. That’s world class. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jambo in Bathgate
1 hour ago, Cade said:

 

England chuck themselves to the deck worse than Portugal these days, they've fully signed up to the dark arts and Captain Kane is the worst of the lot.

Eh for the third goal Kane is fouled but gets up and wins ball. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Go for it 1308
37 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

We've played 3 teams in the worlds top 10 in the last 3 games and we'll learn a lot. 

 

We were poor against England in the main, but we took a lot of lessons from it and applied it to the Spain game where we gave a good performance. 

 

Tonight we actually played well for large spells but lost 4 soft goals which is unlike us under Clarke. However it was also nowhere near our full strength team yet we get value from seeing a few players show up well and that they can be reliable options.

 

We could've taken easier friendlies, no doubt, but we are now in the top tier of the Nations League and in the Euros. We are going to face good teams competitively, it will do us no harm in trying to figure out where we need to improve against similar sides.

Spot on 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale for King
44 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

His debut was away in Ukraine and he was decent.

 

He's got 8 caps, we've won 5 and drawn 1 and kept clean sheets in 5. He's no a world beater, but he's played well enough in a good run. The CH's might not be great individually but are a good unit.

He was all over the place in the Ukraine, Kingsley helped him out all through the game. He is a weak link that teams attempt to exploit, and do. 
One player isn’t responsible for clean sheets, the collective is what gets Scotland results. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale for King
53 minutes ago, Carter said:

I think when you're as short of pace as Shankland is you really need to make sure you're in the best shape possible. Only he'll know whether that's the case. I look at Boyce and he looks in far better physical shape than Shankland. 

 

Even domestically this season I haven't watched Shankland and felt he could really rip it up against what he was faced with. I'm including Dundee, St Mirren and Kilmarnock in that assessment. Some real run of the mill CB's amongst that lot but you've never got a sense that he looked a real level above what he was directly up against. Hibs are rotten defensively but I never felt Shankland looked a real threat against them. 

 

I'll be very surprised if Shankland makes the Euro squad. 

Absolutely spot on, Gordon will be the only player we have away next summer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

No he really hasn’t, go and watch any of the games he’s played and watch him not the ball, don’t listen to the commentators just concentrate on his game. Awful on debut, clueless against England. The Spanish goals he’s pointing at Patterson to mark someone who is behind him and watches Morata run behind Hendry, the own goal he’s stationary and then he cant get back and scores the OG. Hes way out of his depth at this level but so are the other CHs. 

You're talking about games against two of the best teams on the planet.

 

Spain and England's attack will rip many teams to bits. Just ask current Euro champs Italy...

 

Sure he was at fault for that goal, but aside from that and a shaky opening 5 mins, our defence contained Spain pretty well, considering all the possession they had. Porteous many many good clearances and interceptions. He was singled out by commentators because he was playing well.

 

Of course, we wish we had better - CH and ST are where we are lacking the most - but we are where we are relying on guys from the English Championship. When called upon though, he's done well and been part of a team that up until recently was on an 11 game qualification winning streak.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

He was all over the place in the Ukraine, Kingsley helped him out all through the game. He is a weak link that teams attempt to exploit, and do. 
One player isn’t responsible for clean sheets, the collective is what gets Scotland results. 

 

I think you are either misremembering or carrying a Hibs bias. He wasn't all over the place and Kingsley only played 18 minutes so hardly carried anyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit of a gamble playing a shadow team against one of the best teams on the planet but we gain nothing by hiding away from the best teams.  Scotland are on an upwards trajectory but a wee reality check does no harm at all.  I do think winning last two group games is quite important though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, heartmussel said:

If Shankland was to move to Rangers I’m quite sure he will stand a better chance of going to Germany, this won’t go away. Lowry scored tonight as well, wouldn’t surprise me if he moves back to Rangers in January.

Be very unwise to make any ongoing plans that include Lowrey after the year, if he shows his continuing upturn in form, the new Rangers manager is almost certain to recall him

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Jambo in Bathgate said:

No it was one player determined to

get to the ball after being fouled. Italian on his arse. Kane a winner. Held off defender. That’s world class. 


It was utter shambolic defending

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale for King
3 hours ago, Bob Loblaw said:

I think you are either misremembering or carrying a Hibs bias. He wasn't all over the place and Kingsley only played 18 minutes so hardly carried anyone.

Not at all, he was terrible in his first game and made numerous mistakes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale for King
3 hours ago, spacerjoe said:

You're talking about games against two of the best teams on the planet.

 

Spain and England's attack will rip many teams to bits. Just ask current Euro champs Italy...

 

Sure he was at fault for that goal, but aside from that and a shaky opening 5 mins, our defence contained Spain pretty well, considering all the possession they had. Porteous many many good clearances and interceptions. He was singled out by commentators because he was playing well.

 

Of course, we wish we had better - CH and ST are where we are lacking the most - but we are where we are relying on guys from the English Championship. When called upon though, he's done well and been part of a team that up until recently was on an 11 game qualification winning streak.

If you make bad mistakes that cost goals then thats what mostly you are remembered for, he seems to escape criticism for that or bad positioning and decisions because its easier to hide when you play in a back 5. He also blames everyone else when something goes wrong. 
Being a Hibs ***** should also be remembered. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Bob Loblaw said:

We've played 3 teams in the worlds top 10 in the last 3 games and we'll learn a lot. 

 

We were poor against England in the main, but we took a lot of lessons from it and applied it to the Spain game where we gave a good performance. 

 

Tonight we actually played well for large spells but lost 4 soft goals which is unlike us under Clarke. However it was also nowhere near our full strength team yet we get value from seeing a few players show up well and that they can be reliable options.

 

We could've taken easier friendlies, no doubt, but we are now in the top tier of the Nations League and in the Euros. We are going to face good teams competitively, it will do us no harm in trying to figure out where we need to improve against similar sides.

Agree, we're going to be playing competitively against a lot of very very good teams in 2024, so we need to get ready. Take a couple of confidence boosting tune-up friendlies before the Euros if we must but right now if we didn't test ourselves & figure out what needs worked on then we'd need to be on a very very steep learning curve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Samuel Camazzola
13 hours ago, Bob Loblaw said:

His debut was away in Ukraine and he was decent.

 

He's got 8 caps, we've won 5 and drawn 1 and kept clean sheets in 5. He's no a world beater, but he's played well enough in a good run. The CH's might not be great individually but are a good unit.

He got bailed out on three occasions in the Ukraine game due to poor positioning and decision making. In the closing stages he made a big mistake in losing possession in a crazy position but managed to make a (risky) recovery. The performance over there was hugely inflated. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

He got bailed out on three occasions in the Ukraine game due to poor positioning and decision making. In the closing stages he made a big mistake in losing possession in a crazy position but managed to make a (risky) recovery. The performance over there was hugely inflated. 

I'm not saying it wasn't inflated, it was. The hype after was ott. 

 

But he wasn't all over the place and has done his part in a good run. He's been fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Samuel Camazzola
20 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

I'm not saying it wasn't inflated, it was. The hype after was ott. 

 

But he wasn't all over the place and has done his part in a good run. He's been fine.

We've had better in recent times and need better than him. With Souttar getting a run of games, he's an instant improvement. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

We've had better in recent times and need better than him. With Souttar getting a run of games, he's an instant improvement. 

I don't disagree Souttar is a better player than Porteous. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I see the point of those defending the friendly choices, they were a mistake for me. 

 

It's beating the mid-tier teams that's been our problem. We need to learn to become a top pot 2 side, and that's achieved by ensuring we are defeating other pot 2 sides on a consistent basis - the likes of Poland, Austria, Croatia etc. I think we'd learn more from games v those sides than by being shown how big the gap is to the top sides. We already know we're miles off it.

 

Also, I reckon our record v pot 1 sides in qualifying would actually be pretty decent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, hmfc_liam06 said:

While I see the point of those defending the friendly choices, they were a mistake for me. 

 

It's beating the mid-tier teams that's been our problem. We need to learn to become a top pot 2 side, and that's achieved by ensuring we are defeating other pot 2 sides on a consistent basis - the likes of Poland, Austria, Croatia etc. I think we'd learn more from games v those sides than by being shown how big the gap is to the top sides. We already know we're miles off it.

 

Also, I reckon our record v pot 1 sides in qualifying would actually be pretty decent.

 

Who was available out of them to play last night? Albania and Bulgaria played each other but that was about it European wise. Got to remember we were one of the countries who only had 1 qualifier this international break when most had 2. It's now UEFA criteria for countries in the 5 team groups to play friendlies so options are extremely limited. And when France come calling asking for a game generally you aren't turning that down! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mikey1874 said:

 

 

 

Can't help but feel that the return of Sir Craig Gordon is going to have a pretty detrimental impact on Zander's club and country career in the not too distant future. He must know it as well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Luckies1874 said:

 

Who was available out of them to play last night? Albania and Bulgaria played each other but that was about it European wise. Got to remember we were one of the countries who only had 1 qualifier this international break when most had 2. It's now UEFA criteria for countries in the 5 team groups to play friendlies so options are extremely limited. And when France come calling asking for a game generally you aren't turning that down! 

I also believe we'd initially agreed to play NZ in Spain after the Spain game, but then NZ were offered cash to play Australia in London. It left us with limited choices and needing a compulsory game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, hmfc_liam06 said:

While I see the point of those defending the friendly choices, they were a mistake for me. 

 

It's beating the mid-tier teams that's been our problem. We need to learn to become a top pot 2 side, and that's achieved by ensuring we are defeating other pot 2 sides on a consistent basis - the likes of Poland, Austria, Croatia etc. I think we'd learn more from games v those sides than by being shown how big the gap is to the top sides. We already know we're miles off it.

 

Also, I reckon our record v pot 1 sides in qualifying would actually be pretty decent.

 

Looking at it just now the stronger sides are in pot 3 for the Euro draw. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

I also believe we'd initially agreed to play NZ in Spain after the Spain game, but then NZ were offered cash to play Australia in London. It left us with limited choices and needing a compulsory game.

 

And France possibly unexpectedly played their strongest side. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be interesting who we organise the friendlies against for March and late May / early Jun. Steve Clarke has said we will have 4 (2 in each). They may wait to see who we get in the draw before committing to some of them.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Mikey1874 said:

 

Looking at it just now the stronger sides are in pot 3 for the Euro draw. 

 

I mean qualifying pots.

 

We've not won a tournament match since 1996, we've only ever won 4 tournament matches and yet we're trying to kid ourselves on we can compete with France and England :rofl:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...