Spanish and Man City midfielder Rodri said: “Although I think it’s rubbish, it’s the way [Scotland] plays; they always waste time, make you angry, and lose. David Garcia of Spain said, “For me, this is not football. The grass was too long, and that cost us.”
After his team suffered a Hampden defeat in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, Spain’s captain Rodri criticised Scotland’s “rubbish” football strategy.
After Scott McTominay of Manchester United scored twice to give Scotland a 2-0 victory and their first victory over Spain in 39 years, a Manchester City player accused Scotland of provocation and time-wasting.
Spain had not been beaten in Euro qualifying since 2014, when they were beaten 2-1 by Slovakia ahead of the 2016 tournament in France.
1 – Scotland earned their first win over Spain since November 1984 (3-1 in a World Cup qualifier), while this was just their third ever competitive victory against them (1957, 1984 and 2023). Spirited. pic.twitter.com/jxdaYqFoAa
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 28, 2023
They had won 34 of their last 38 European qualifying matches, with three draws, but at Hampden Park they looked unsettled.
Rodri skippered a side featuring eight changes from their previous game, and he criticised the way Scotland went about their work.
“We did many good things to win,” he said on Viaplay. “We conceded easy goals – this is football, if you concede easy goals you are penalised.
“It’s the way they play, but for me it’s rubbish, always wasting time, provoking you, always they fall. For me, this is not football.
The referee has to take on this, but he says nothing.
“We will learn for the next time. We want to go for duels, for battles – we always fight, but this is not about fighting. It’s about wasting time – four, five players on the floor, but this depends on the referee, not on us.
“Today we did many good things, but what’s important is the goal, and we didn’t score.”
David Garcia, who was making his Spain debut, also blamed the results on the length of the pitch at Hampden.
We can’t make excuses for that, we have to look at ourselves and fix what we did wrong today.”