David Garcia has claimed that the length of the Hampden Park pitch played a part in Spain losing to Scotland last night.
Super Scott McTominay was again the two-goal hero as Scotland stunned their opponents with a sensational 2-0 Euro 2024 qualifying win.
The Manchester United midfielder, who climbed off the bench to score twice to clinch the 3-0 home win against Cyprus on Saturday, struck again after seven minutes to shock the Spanish side and probably the Tartan Army too.
Angus Gunn’s goal survived a few scares in the first half as the Spanish reacted fiercely but McTominay grabbed a second six minutes after the restart to take Steve Clarke’s men top of Group A with six points from six.
Reacting to the game, Spain defender Garcia bizarrely brought up the length of the grass at the Scottish national stadium.
He said: "We already saw that the grass was too long, and that cost us.
"We can’t make excuses for that, we have to look at ourselves and fix what we did wrong today.
"I’m happy for the debut but the defeat has been hard. They have come at us twice all game, but we have to learn and get something positive out of this.
"I felt comfortable, it took me a bit to start, but I got into the game quickly."
Spain captain Rodri criticised Scotland’s “rubbish” approach to football after his team were on the end of a Hampden defeat.
Rodri told Viaplay Sports: “It’s the way they play. You have to respect at the end but for me it’s a bit rubbish because it’s always wasting time. They provoke you and they always fall.
“This for me is not football. For the speed of the sport you have to move on, but the referee has to take part of this and he says nothing.
“It was frustrating because we want to win and it’s difficult because they waste time, waste time. But it is what it is. They have their weapons and we have our weapons and we will learn for the next time.”
Some of Spain’s players incurred the wrath of the Scotland fans for theatrical falls, notably Joselu who twice went down in the box in dramatic fashion, and Pedro Porro, who rolled in agony after a clash for which Andy Robertson received a yellow card.
When asked whether his own team were guilty of going down too easily, the midfielder said: “No, we want to go into battle and we always fight but this is not about fighting. It’s about wasting time, four or five players on the floor, these kind of situations.”
