Scotland Under-21s fall flat as Rangers kid makes debut and £40m EPL star sees red
Scotland under-21s suffered their second successive qualifying loss against a talented Portugal side at Fir Park.
Scotland under-21s fell to a second successive European Championship qualifying defeat as a classy Portugal side ran out comfortable 2-0 winners at Fir Park despite going down to 10 men late on
The visitors prevailed thanks to goals in each half from Rodrigo Mora (19) and Roger Fernandes (55), taking all three points in Group B, with Scot Gemmill’s side left powerless to resist their far superior visitors, who go top of the table on goal difference. Scotland slump to the bottom of the table.
Hoping to end almost three decades of hurt at under-21 level, Rangers youngster Findlay Curtis was handed his first start as the young guns sought to give their qualification hopes a shot in the arm after suffering a 2-0 defeat to Czechia in last week’s opening game. Firmly set on erasing the painful memories from their failed campaign last year, Scotland youngsters haven’t qualified for the tournament since 1996.
A consistent failure to qualify for major tournaments has resulted in a large section of supporters viewing Gemmill’s management of the new generation rather cynically; and the lulled rendition of Flower of Scotland perhaps evidenced their lack of confidence that his side could pull off an unlikely result.
In fairness to Gemmill, while success on the pitch has been minimal, the talent that has emerged from his squad in recent years has been encouraging. Ben Doak, Max Johnston, and Lennon Miller have successfully progressed to the senior set-up while still teenagers, with Hearts’ James Wilson also offered sporadic opportunities by Steve Clarke. It’ll be scant consolation for Gemmill tonight, though, as he stares down the barrel of another limp defeat.
As for Luís Freire’s Portugal, his production line is a different kettle of fish entirely. The envy of many nations across Europe, West Ham United’s £40million new summer signing Mateus Fernandes donning the captain’s armband for the opposition was clear confirmation of the gulf in quality.
It didn’t take long for that difference to show either, with the away side opening the scoring through Mora after just 20 minutes. Some excellent movement from Porto’s teenage hitman resulted in him finding the space between the two centre-backs and nodding home Geovany Quenda’s cross beyond Ruairidh Adams from close range.
Scotland looked to quickly punch back on the break, but Dire Mebude’s pass was too strong for Curtis, and what looked like a good opportunity went to waste. While the 21-year-old frontman cut a lonely figure at times, he had Scotland’s best chance of the night when his close-range shot was well blocked by Joao Carvalho in the visitors’ goal just before the break.
Portugal gained complete control of the game less than 10 minutes into the second-half, though, with Quenda once again at the forefront of the action as he capitalized on a slack ball from Kristi Montgomery before releasing Gustavo Verela in the box, whose neat pass to Mora allowed him to feed Roger Fernandes to blast home.
The largest cheer of the night came 18 minutes from time when Portugal captain Mateus Fernandes was given a second yellow for a rash tackle on David Watson. The one-man advantage didn’t spark Scotland into life, though, with a second defeat offering little in the way of points, or positivity, on a cold night in Motherwell.
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