The unseen Kieran Tierney moment of composure in Euro 2024 as Scotland morph into Spain

Ross Pilcher
·2-min read

A seemingly insignificant first-half moment from Kieran Tierney showed how lessons had been learned from the Germany debacle.

Scotland got their Euro 2024 campaign back on track with a 1-1 draw against Switzerland in Cologne, meaning a win over Hungary on Sunday in Stuttgart will likely see Steve Clarke create history and become the first ever national team boss to guide us into the knockout stage of a major tournament.

That looked like a pipe dream as Germany were racking up the goals on opening night. The occasion got to the Scots, and the signs were there that we were maybe a bit over emotional when Tierney and Andy Robertson were celebrating winning a goal kick after just a few minutes. Against the Swiss however, there was far more know-how on display, and ITV pundit Eni Aluko picked up on it in her analysis ahead of Slovenia vs Serbia in ITV.

"This is in the first ten minutes and just watch the time that Kieran Tierney takes to take the throw in," she said. "It might seem like a little thing but this is what composure and killing the momentum of the game looks like.

"They've just scored, Scotland, he’s swapping the ball, he's waiting and now, Scotland are in shape. They're in control of the situation now against Switzerland. This is exactly what composure looks like.

"They looked completely different against Germany. they were celebrating goal kicks, not in shape; that's what it looks like and that's where Scotland had a lot more composure and control in the game."

There was another period of first half action that showed we'd truly settled into tournament mode. Tierney won the ball on his own byeline and instead of booting it clear, turned infield and zipped a pass into Billy Gilmour on the edge of his own box. He dropped a first time pass off to Grant Hanley, who did the same to McGregor and in turn the Celtic captain popped it off to Tierney, who had stepped up from deep to rejoin the play, and he released Robertson down the left.

Aluko added: "Even in possession as well. You see here, this is more like Spain than Scotland. Brilliant play, playing out. Composed, confident and then we're off. I'm so pleased for Scotland because that was a key part, that emotion against Germany and they didn't quite get it right.

"In this game, they showed a lot of composure and a lot of control. And they got the result that will put them in a really, really good position to get out of this group against Hungary."

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