Wales & Scotland play offs

**NigeSausagepump** · 20/11/2003, 8:49 AM

Did anyone watch the Wales & Scotland matches last night? I must say I was very disappointed that they didn't make it, it would have been some compensation for our failure to qualify if one of them had made it.
Wales though just looked so far away from the team that beat Italy earlier in the campaign. I know they were missing Bellamy and Davies, but it was all long balls to Hartson or give it to Giggs and hope he can beat five men. In fact the display reminded me a lot of our game against the Swiss - so much at stake, a must win but the team seemed lifeless and totally bankrupt when it came to ideas. I think Wales really missed a leader, just like we did in Basle.
I feared Scotland would be routed against Holland and that's what happened. They have still a long way to go to make inroads at the top level, but they've definitely come on from where they were a few years ago.

**tiktok** · 20/11/2003, 9:08 AM

Didn't really expect Scotland to make it, even after the result on Saturday. Holland are just too good, and to be honest, i'm glad they'll be there next summer, it's just a shame it was the Scots that had to lose out.

I thought Wales had a shot though, and i think the similarity with our game against the Swiss is a point well made, they didn't really seem up for it. Poor performance overall, Hartson was lost upfront on his own, against Onopko it might have been better to have Earnshaw running at him from the start, Johnson did very little in midfield anyway, so a 442 would have worked better.

Result of the night though was Latvia drawing in turkey to go through.

**pete** · 20/11/2003, 10:34 AM

Of the 4 games only saw the Wales game in Moscow. Wales & Scotland are not good enough.

Latvia result was one of biggest results in long long time. Wasn't long ago we used to beat them easily home & away.

**Shed End John** · 20/11/2003, 5:30 PM

Originally posted by pete
Latvia result was one of biggest results in long long time. Wasn't long ago we used to beat them easily home & away.

Aaaaahhhhh! Those were the days. IMO, Latvia's GREAT result last night comes behind only USA-England 1950 and Faroes beating Austria 1-0 in their inaugral international about 10-12 years back.