Hampden Park

Ahh, the national Stadium on Glasgow’s Southside has seen many famous sites in it’s history, notable games include:

1. Real Madrid hammering Eintract Frankfurt 7-3 in the 1960 European Cup Final
2. 149, 415 watching Scotland entertain England in the 1937 Home Nations Championships
3. Zinedine Zidane’s wonder volley against Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League final as Real won once again.

For more see here.

Sadly the main achievements list for the National Team is fairly bare, but wins against France in recent years and great performances against Italy twice have seen Hampden host some good games, so it was with a (very small) spring in my step that I joined my brother-in-law at Waverly station in Edinburgh to make our way to Mount Florida for this Euro 2012 qualifying tie.

Walking to the ground

As usual it was a pre-match bevy we were after, but this proved difficult having waited in the pub centrally for a pal Col to arrive, but we eventually made a pint close to the ground before joining the other guys in the stadium before kick-off.

The teams walk out

National Anthem Time

What happened over the next 90 minutes was unbelievable, as Spain showed all the quality they have…and more, eventually building a two-goal lead. Then, unbelievable scenes as first Steven Naismith notched with a header, then Gerard Pique was forced to turn a cross into his own net for the equaliser. Cue deleirum in the stadium…scratch that, pandeomonium! Scotland had pulled two goals back against the World Champions!

Just prior to Kick-off

Sadly, being Scotland they decided to settle for glorious defeat, with McManus mis-judging his header and substitute Fernando Llorente side-footing home. This was the final nail in the coffin, and Steven Whittaker’s Red Card late in the day doing nothing but adding a bit of insult to injury.

In Game shot

As BBC Reported Craig Moffat put it very well: ‘’It's a familiar tale of glorious failure for Scotland as the crowd rise to their feet in applause. They gave it everything. Del Bosque, who hardly cracked a smile when Spain won the World Cup actually looked worried for a while."

As for Hampden, it’s not been a great rebuilding job they have done since it re-opened in 1999, but it does a job and it’s always great to hear the Hampden Roar on International Match Days.