Midfielder John McGinn was left annoyed by the decision to rule out Scott McTominay’s goal as Scotland lost 2-0 to Spain on Thursday and missed their first chance to clinch a place at Euro 2024 next summer.
McTominay’s brilliant free-kick beat Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón in the 61st minute in Seville with the game still goalless. However, Dutch referee Serdar Gözübüyük disallowed the strike after VAR advised him to check the pitchside monitor.
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The stadium’s big screen initially indicated that the goal had been ruled out for a foul on Simón by Jack Hendry. UEFA later clarified that this was because Hendry was in an offside position and interfering with play.
“You have to be very careful about what you say,” Aston Villa’s McGinn told Viaplay. “I think everyone watching this game tonight from a Scotland point of view, wherever you were, felt like we weren’t getting a 50/50 decision – that made it very difficult against a world-class team.
“He [the referee] I changed it [his reasoning on the VAR check] in the game, which is annoying. This means that it is not clear and obvious.
“Is he going to save it? No chance. No goalkeeper in the world is going to save that. However, at one point he said it was a foul, he realized that it wasn’t a foul, so he changes it to offside.”
Spain won the match 2–0, with Álvaro Morata opening the scoring with his 34th goal for his country and debutant Oihan Sancet adding the second late on after a defensive error.
Scotland manager Steve Clarke did not want to dwell on the disallowed goal, but felt his side were unlucky to lose their opening game in the group.
“It was a brilliant performance, Spain know they were in a game,” Clarke said. “The game was fought by a small margin. If it was offside or a foul, I don’t know why he gave it to be honest.
“I think because he’s offside and then he goes towards the goalkeeper, maybe because he makes contact with the goalkeeper, they flag him as offside. But small margins. We think that’s a goal.
“You can point to the goal as many times as you want, we are not succeeding. We have to move on, we have done that. But I found the second goal unfortunate and it gives an unfair shine to the game because I don’t. I don’t think we deserved to lose 2-0. I don’t think we deserved to lose to be fair.”
Scotland still top Group A with 15 points from six matches, three ahead of Spain, who have a game in hand. Clarke’s side need just a point from their final two games to book their place at next summer’s finals in Germany – and could even qualify on Sunday if Spain beat Norway.
“It’s disappointing tonight, but we’re still in a good position,” added Clarke. “This team just keeps getting better and tonight is another step forward. It hurts, but we’re getting ready for November against Georgia and Norway.”
Scotland’s task in Seville was made more difficult by the loss of Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson to injury early in the match.
“He’s injured his shoulder, we’ll see, obviously he’ll return to his club,” Clarke explained ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against France. “We will see how it goes and how it is resolved. I hope he will be good for his club as quickly as possible and will be ready to help us in November.”
The victory served as revenge for Spain, who were beaten 2-0 at Hampden Park in March in the reverse match.
The defeat prompted Manchester City midfielder Rodri to brand Scotland’s style of play “a bit rubbish”, comments for which he apologized after Thursday’s match.
“I want to explain what I said about Scotland because I feel [my comments] have been misinterpreted,” Rodri told Spanish television. “I always respect the way my opponents play. There’s a reason they’re at the top of the group.
I simply said that these kinds of actions – wasting time and provoking the opposition – go against the spirit of football. It has nothing to do with them, sometimes these kinds of things is used [in football]. It wasn’t a comment against the way they play.
“I have 100% respect for them. I compete against a lot of them in the Premier League and I know the level of the team. They are a tough opponent, for how hard they work, to how tight they keep their lines and they’re fine. -drilled.”
Spain will qualify for Euro 2024 if they beat Norway on Sunday. They will, however, be without Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams and Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde for this match, after both returned to their respective clubs with knocks.
