Scotland boss angrily dismisses firing rumours
Scotland national team coach Craig Levein has hit out at suggestions he was close to being sacked by the Scottish Football Association.
Levein’s team left it until the seventh minute of injury time before they were able to find a winning goal against minows Liechtenstein — who are ranked as the 141st best team in the world — in a UEFA 2012 European Football Championship qualifying match on Tuesday.
That close call led to some reports that Levein had come close to being relieved of his duties just four games into his tenure as Scotland coach.
'Stupid talk'
However, the former Dundee United manager has dismissed such claims and told the Times that: "That's just stupid talk. It was only my second competitive game in charge so it is stupid for anyone to talk like that. Of course I would have been gutted if we hadn't got the three points, but we did. Yes, it was dramatic, but it doesn't matter to me if we score in the 60th minute or in the 95th minute. We won the game. How could Scotland possibly make any progress if sacking the manager was going on after any setback?”
Levein added that the standings in qualifying Group I meant that he had reason to believe his side could progress to the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine. Scotland are at the top of the group ahead of reigning world and European champions Spain, Lithuania — with whom the Scots had a goalless draw last Friday — Czech Republic and Liechtenstein,
He said that: “What I am trying to do is build something here, with a philosophy that the players will buy into and as things stand in our group, we are looking okay.”
The ex-Heart of Midlothian boss has already led Scotland to a 1-0 victory over the Czechs in a friendly in his first game in charge. However, Scotland also lost 3-0 to Sweden in a friendly match last month under his command.
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