Being decent isn't enough
The draw wasn't especially kind, but with the top two qualifying automatically for the now-24 team tournament we surely had a shot at third and a playoff, if not second.
It didn't help us that Germany inexplicably managed to lose in Poland and Ireland - the latter in the penultimate round of matches to essentially kill us off. Scotland took four points off of the Irish, with Shaun Maloney's clever short corner routine winning the home game and us nicking a point in Dublin despite being rank. We also led Poland 2-1 twice but conceded equalizers in the last 15 minutes both times.
The Germany games were, of course, ripe Glorious Failure territory. In Dortmund Ikechi Anya raced clear at breakneck speed to equalize after a first half which finished 1-0 going on 10-0. Thomas Muller got the home side out of jail though. At Hampden we came from two down to level before half-time but lost 3-2.
As in 2007, Georgia were the kryptonite. We lost 1-0 there in game seven; Gibraltar were the only other team they took points off. That result crippled us. As for Gib, we were treated to Gordon Strachan's one centre-back plus Scott Brown formation at Hampden, which thankfully was changed after Gibraltar scored.
This one can be filed under 'opportunity missed'. Northern Ireland, Wales and Albania went to the finals that summer. Scotland didn't.
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