Andrew Robertson slams Scotland loss to Russia, says ‘no one showed up’ and fumes at goal reaction
Scotland captain Andrew Robertson fumed at his team-mates after their loss to Russia left their Euro 2020 qualifying hopes in tatters.
Despite taking a 10th-minute lead through John McGinn, Scotland were beaten by goals in each half by Artem Dzyuba and a second-half own goal from Stephen O’Donnell, leaving them six points off the second qualifying spot in Group I – and with Belgium to visit Hampden Park on Monday night, live on Sky Sports.
Robertson took aim at his side’s reaction to their bright start at Hampden Park, saying he had „never seen anything like“ the manner in which he felt his country froze after netting the opener.
„There’s frustration, annoyance, everything that goes along with it,“ he told Sky Sports. „You can feel it from the stands and we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that, they’ve got every right. It wasn’t good enough.
„First 15 minutes I thought we were good, got the goal and it was as if it scared us, I’ve never seen anything like that before. That needs to change, If we go into a lead it should be a positive not a negative.
„I’m annoyed with everything. My performance, what the rest of the lads done, all of us except David Marshall really. To have 10 players from the start not really showing up and putting in the performances we can is never going to win you a game of football.“
Goalscorer McGinn laid the blame squarely at a lack of belief among the Scotland players, who have not qualified for a tournament of any kind since 1998 and sacked Alex McLeish after a poor start to this qualifying campaign.
„It was a mixture of things, maybe we lacked a bit of belief and that is not acceptable,“ he said. „We have got to believe we can go and make it 2-0 and 3-0 because if we don’t do that we are not going to make any tournaments. We know we are capable in there and that is the frustrating thing.
„All the boys are gutted. We know we have messed up and we know what we have to improve on and, if it happens again, hopefully we will be in better position to solve it.“
Clarke: Belgium approaching ‘must-win’
Manager Steve Clarke shared his captain’s frustration, lamenting the way Scotland „froze“ after McGinn’s goal, and said it had made their showdown with world No 1 ranked Belgium a must-win game if they still harbour hopes of qualifying for next year’s finals.
He said: „We started the game ever so well, got ourselves in front and then froze. We couldn’t believe we were in front, almost. We took our foot off the gas and gave them the momentum. It’s a disappointing result after such a bright start.
„If you’re going to qualify you have to turn up in the big games and the big nights. This was a night we had to turn up, we did at the start and were in the game at the start but when it goes 2-1 the momentum swings, we risk a lot, put some pressure on but the Russians were always a threat on the counter and we had to be wary of that.
„Now it’s about getting the lads positive and up for the game on Monday. It’s almost a must-win. That’s the scenario, we’ve put ourselves in a difficult place in the group. We’ve got to get something, and if we got three points it’d certainly give us half a chance of getting through.“
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
bet365 reserves the right to amend, cancel, reclaim or refuse any promotion at its own discretion.
