On the Prom

Sunny day at the beach. Even nicer than yesterday and the place was mobbed. In the evening it was the big match - Scotland still in with a shout of getting out of the group stages at a major football tournament for the first time in a dozen attempts. Whether it was the chat that said there might still be a chance if they only got a draw or an extreme pessimism that any sort of attacking might lead to a counter attack they were spectacularly poor, with barely any attacking threat. Yes, we are a small country with a correspondingly small potential pool of players, but so are countries like Denmark and Croatia. And other small teams have made more of a go of things in this tournament. There was a penalty claim late on that looked worthy of VAR attention but had it been given (and then scored - still a big ask - remember Don Masson?) it wouldn't have been a deserved victory. Hungary weren't much more entertaining, leaving Scotland to pass the ball ineffectually for long periods, although on their few attacks they looked more threatening. A serious injury to one of the Hungarians meant there was 10 minutes of stoppage time and of course in the last of those Hungary counter attacked and scored the winner, definitely ending Scotland's chances. When might there be a next time?
Subsequent games haven't gone the way they would have had to so the draw wouldn't have been enough either, so the Hungarian goal was largely irrelevant for us (although still might just be enough for them to sneak in as the fourth-best third-placed team).