LATE GOAL BURSA BAW FOR SCOTS
TURKEY U21S ............... SCOTLAND U21S ..........
SCOT GEMMILL was gutted after a late leveller in Bursa denied his Scotland kids three massive points.
But he praised his severely depleted side for a creditable draw despite being without 10 England-based players due to Covid restrictions.
And they could have easily won it at the end, with Besiktas keeper Ersin Destanoglu making three great saves and goalscorer Glenn Middleton missing another chance that would have got them off to a terrific start in their Euro 2023 opener.
Boss Gemmill said: “I’m genuinely annoyed we didn’t win but, at the same time, there is a lot to be positive about.
“It’s not easy to come to places like this. There were a lot of good things.
“It’s a new group and it’s such a good feeling to know there’s new players coming through who can be trusted to come to places like this, who are willing to play as they’ve been prepared and show they do want to play for Scotland.
“It wasn’t perfect and we’re a little bit behind in terms of preparation. But I told the players that performance confirmed we are working with good people.
“We know they are good players but they showed they are good people who proved they could come to this environment and really play. There were some strong performances and we were good defensively too.”
The night didn’t get off to the best start when Flower of Scotland twice embarrassingly cut out during the anthems.
But they soon hit the right notes by taking an eighth-minute lead.
Middleton surged forward and was initially denied by a fine save from Destanoglu who pushed his shot wide.
Celtic starlet Adam Montgomery floated the ball back in from the left and the St Johnstone star volleyed home.
Aberdeen right-back Calvin Ramsay made a brilliant intervention on his debut to turn a cross wide right in front of his goal with Ali Akman waiting to pounce.
The match became ill-tempered and Turkey boss Tolunay Kafkas even stormed on to the pitch, attempting to break up yet another scuffle with five players booked in the first half.
James Scott missed a sitter four minutes into the second half and the home side made Scotland pay when they scrambled an equaliser with 15 minutes left when a corner was deflected into the path of Enis Destan to fire in.