Chris NiXoN | nixonbyname.com

Hope for Glory

I’ve never written a post about football, but this is the thing foremost in my mind this week.

On Saturday, Scotland take on World Cup holders Italy in our last (and their penultimate) game in qualifying for Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Italy are ranked third in the world in FIFA’s world rankings, after Argentina and Brazil. Back in March 2005 when Scotland were ranked 88th, I had no trust in FIFA’s ranking system, but now we’ve climbed up to 13th, I’m happier to accept their calculation.

Now a couple of years back…hell, even this time last year, I would have said their was NO chance of beating Italy. It was completely unthinkable. There are, however, a number of factors pointing to the fact that Scotland could pull off a shocker and put the world champions out of Europe’s biggest football competition.

Scotland have beaten the World Cup runners up, and FIFA’s fourth ranked team, France TWICE in this qualifying group. I was at the first of them at Hampden (Scotland’s home stadium) in October last year. It was the greatest football match I have ever been to, and there was only one goal scored. I can barely remember any of the match action. My memories are of the goal, and then we sang and sang and sang until the full-time whistle. I could barely speak for the week following the match. We all thought it was a but of a lucky result, but in September this year we went on to beat them again in Paris. Surely no fluke.

Italy have NEVER beaten Scotland at Hampden. You can’t argue with a statistic like that. It is a very intimidating stadium for visiting teams. While visiting fans are made welcome, no matter what the result, 60,000 baying Scots, kilted and fairly drunk, can put even the biggest teams off their stride. On the three (don’t quote me) visits they have made to Hampden in the past, they have never managed to overcome this force of will. Hopefully on Saturday, we will be able to take advantage of this.

Scotland are on a huge high at the moment. Since Bertie Vogts left as Scotland manager, the huge surge in playing abilities, support and hope means that there is somewhat of a steamroller effect. Italy will have a hard job in stopping us. They will not be relishing their visit to Glasgow, and the possibility that they won’t make it to the finals.

If we beat Italy we will most likely go into Euro 2008 as a top 8 ranked team despite not qualifying for a major championship in a decade. I won’t predict a score for Saturday, but I think it can be done. I’m not counting any chickens, and I’ll definitely be looking for any possible good luck charm for the day, but I am hoping for glory.

opinion, sport, football, scotland, italy, euro 2008, hampden, tartan army, soccer