Scotland manager Craig Levein believes his side can still qualify for Euro 2012 despite recent setbacks
It was a tough few days for Scottish soccer during Euro 2012 qualifying. They suffered back-to-back defeats in Group I, losing to both the Czech Republic and Spain. But manager Craig Levein, still believes that his team is on track to achieve qualification.
Levein praised his team for persevering from two goals down against the reigning World Cup champions, Spain, to bring up the score level before ultimately falling 3-2 on a 79th minute strike from Fernando Llorente.
"I felt [that] the players did everything that I asked from them," Levein said. "They tried to follow every instruction to the letter. In my eyes, they could not have done any more and the supporters appreciated that."
"The chemistry between the players and supporters was as good as I've seen here in a long, long time and the place was rocking."
When Levein thinks about the team's formula for a successful qualifying campaign, he believes that his Scottish side is still on track. "In my eyes, we always had to beat the Czech Republic and Lithuania at home and Liechtenstein away. Nothing has changed."
Levein will have to wait nearly an entire year before he gets a chance to prove his hypothesis, as Scotland doesn't play another qualifying match until September 3, 2011 when they play host to the Czech Republic.
Scotland has yet to reach a major international tournament since they qualified for the World Cup in France (they failed to win a match).
Scotland currently sits in third place in their qualifying group behind the Czechs and the Spanish, but Levein and his team are optimistic that, if they perform the way they did against Spain, that they will achieve the results they are seeking.
"If we can play the way we did tonight against the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Liechtenstein, then I don't think we've got much to fear," Glasgow Rangers striker Kenny Miller said after the Spain match.
"Reproducing that display is going to be tough and they will be hard games. But if we can win our two home games and win away in Liechtenstein, [then] I don't think we will be far away from second spot."
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