A massive Putin the baws as goals hit back of nyet
LAST NIGHT’S BIG-MATCH VERDICT
VLADIMIR PUTIN spent the start of this week wandering about the Siberian wilderness.
Not one of the mountains he scaled during that hiking trip to celebrate his 67th birthday are surely as big as the one Steve Clarke is facing as he tries to repair damage and turn around the fortunes of Scotland.
Putin had swapped his usual trips which have in the past consisted of riding horses bare-chested and allegedly shooting a tranquiliser dart at a wild tiger for a more refined outing.
The Russian leader was pictured hiking around picking flowers and mushrooms.
To be brutally frank, you’d probably have been accused of eating some of those mushies if you had backed Scotland to get anything out of this contest before a ball was kicked.
But it wasn’t mushrooms which dazed the senses. It was the sickening way it all fell apart which confused the mind and hurt the most.
What drives you daft is that, for almost an hour, there were actually hints at hopeful signs about the team starting to make their way out of their own footballing wilderness.
Yet by the end it was another bitter and heavy loss. Big Artem Dzyuba spent the build-up saying it’s weird that Scottish folk have lost faith in their team.
That was a bit rich given that after 57 minutes of us trying to restore some of it from within he decided to be the one who ripped it away again with a couple of goals as Russia finally got the big jolly they came for.
In truth it was an ugly and horrible finale for the travelling Scots within a beautiful setting. The spectacular Luzhniki Stadium is a fascinating mixture of the old meeting the new.
At the main entrance, the imposing monument to Vladimir Lenin which was installed in 1960 still towers over the supporters as they make their way towards the turnstiles.
Beneath it the more modern concepts of a mini concert stage pumping out music on one side and a mobile van selling kebabs on the other. When they renovated the stadium for the World Cup 15 months ago the traditional facade wall was