Scotland Under-21 coach quits as 4-0 hammering in Ukraine ends hopes of qualification
● Gemmill to take charge of U21s after 4-0 drubbing confirms end of Euro hopes
RICKY SBRAGIA to be replaced by Scot Gemmill as youngsters see Euro hopes fizzle out.
Ricky Sbragia has stepped down as Scotland Under 21 manager and will be replaced by Scot Gemmill after his side suffered a depressing hammering last night in Kiev.
Scotland were already all but eliminated from their European Championship campaign, but they crashed to a second defeat in five days, following a loss to ten-man Macedonia at Tynecastle on Friday.
And it emerged after the game that former Sunderland boss Sbragia had decided to end his 13-month reign and leave his post, but will remain with the SFA as a youth coach.
The ex-manchester United coach held an emotional meeting with the players after the game where he informed them he was quitting. Former Everton and Nottingham Forest midfielder Gemmill will take over for the two remaining games left in their group, away to Iceland and Macedonia.
Sbragiawaspromotedtosucceed Billy Stark when he was the Under 19s boss, but the current campaign has been a huge disappointment and it was a woeful way for Sbragia to sign off as Scotland were thumped and had Hearts’ John Souttar sent off in injury time for a penalty box challenge.
It’s believed Sbragia decided this would be his last campaign some time ago and decided to leave when Scotland were officially knocked out of qualifying to give Gemmill time to ease himself into the job. The 60-year-old has been with the SFA for five years and wants to take a back seat to allow Gemmill to step up.
Last night at the Obolon Arena, Scotland crashed to a double from Artern Besedin, after Andriy Bliznichenko opened the scoring.
The night ended in more shame when Souttar was harshly adjudged to have pegged back Andriy Boryachukintheboxandwasshown a straight red card. The same player dinked the resulting penalty over keeper Liam Kelly to end a miserable evening.
Sbragia said: “I’m disappointed. We felt we started quite well. We had a lot of the ball, asked them to be a bit more positive in the final third, but we got caught as we normally do with a goal. We got caught in moments and they punished us. Clinical finishing by them and bad defending in some cases.”
He added: “I didn’t think we deserved to lose 4-0. But we did. It sums up the campaign.”