A seething Craig Levein last night blamed Kevin Blom, the Dutch referee, for depriving Scotland of a crucial Euro 2012 qualifying victory.
The Scotland manager stopped short of conceding defeat in his bid to lead the country to a first major tournament since the 1998 World Cup, but he laid responsibility for yesterday’s setback squarely with Mr Blom, who awarded a 90th-minute penalty to the Czech Republic when Jan Rezek used Danny Wilson’s lunge as an invitation to dive in the penalty area, then booked Christophe Berra for doing likewise at the other end, despite the fact Roman Hubnik actually made contact with the Wolves player.
The only thing that could be said in mitigation for the Dutchman’s erratic decision-making was the fact he had made an equally bad error in the first half, when he failed to punish Charlie Adam for treading on Milan Baros’s foot in the box.
“It just beggars belief that he could make two mistakes of such magnitude,” said Levein last night. “There was no contact on their player, and there was contact on Christophe. It is simple. You would need to ask the referee why he made two such major mistakes.
“It is easy for managers to come in after the game and blame the referee for their team’s inadequacies,” he added, “but when you have two stark decisions like that, looked at in isolation, in the last couple of minutes then I can’t do anything else but say they cost us the game.
“It is a shame we are sitting here talking about refereeing decisions, but I can’t get away from it, it is that blatant.
“I was waiting around to speak to the referee but I thought, ‘what is the point?’, and went back into the dressing room to calm down a little bit.”
If it was hard to imagine such a fate befalling more renowned nations like England or Spain, Levein rejected the suggestion that Scotland needed to become more streetwise in such situations. “I wouldn’t advocate that at all, we can’t even do it properly,” he said.
“Christophe gets contact and goes down and we can’t even get a penalty, so what chance have we got of getting a penalty for a dive?
“I don’t know how the process works in Uefa, whether someone will look at his performance and he will miss out on future international matches, but that isn’t my concern now.
“We showed great resilience and played very well at times. And to lose the match through circumstances that we can’t control is a real sickener.”
Wilson claimed that even Rezek admitted he had not been fouled for the Czechs’ penalty. “I didn’t touch him,” said the Liverpool defender. “I spoke to the player afterwards and asked him if there had been any contact and he said no. I got the slightest of touches on the ball. It wasn’t the strongest of touches but, at the same time, I didn’t touch the player.”
The 2-2 draw leaves Scotland trailing the Czech Republic by five points in the hunt for a play-off place from Group I, having played a game less, and means qualification is no longer in the hands of Levein’s players.
The national coach said last night that he retained hope of overhauling the Czechs, although should they beat Lithuania in Kaunas next month, Scotland may need to win all three of their remaining games to do so, including the visit to Alicante to take on Spain, the world and European champions, who must also win in Prague next month if a remarkable escape is to be realised.
“We need to win all our games, but that is a challenge we are ready for,” Levein said. “There is fire in the players’ bellies now and we will use that. We are angry about what happened, we are not feeling sorry for ourselves.”
His opposite number, Michal Bilek, went for the Arsene Wenger approach on the game’s frantic denouement, and pleaded the fifth amendment.
“It is difficult for me to comment because I didn’t really have the best view,” Bilek said. “Scotland had some very good players like Darren Fletcher and Kenny Miller, but I feel we played the better football.”
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