Celtic defender Stephen Welsh has been left raging with Scotland under-21s’ brutal showing against Turkey at Tynecastle on Friday night.
The young Scots had a big chance to bolster their qualification opportunities for the 2023 U21 European Championships. A victory was essential to keep track of Belgium and Denmark at the top of the group, especially having dropped 2 points in Turkey on matchday 1.
However, it was a brutal performance from Scott Gemmill’s side. Welsh captained the young Scots once again, but a meek 2-0 defeat was all they had to show for their efforts.
Scotland barely managed to test the Turks’ goal, and given the game was screened live on BBC Scotland, it turned out to be a huge disappointment. Welsh, meanwhile, hasn’t been in the mood to mince his words either.
As quoted by the Scotsman, he said: “That first-half performance was one of, if not the worst I’ve seen from a Scotland team at any age group. From past experience going through the age groups 17s, 19s and now 21s, even if a side is better than you – you still work harder than them.
“I don’t think we worked 50 percent to what Turkey did, although they were very good players. We weren’t aggressive enough, didn’t think we applied ourselves enough at all and on the ball I think we were very, very poor. We looked in shock when we got the ball, we were shaky and maybe a bit of nervousness but I think we need to move on from that now.
“Not working hard enough. Not giving 100 percent in my opinion. We weren’t getting tight enough, not aggressive enough and simply not good enough.”
Stephen Welsh shows captain qualities with Scotland analysis
Credit to Welsh here. He’s absolutely spot on to slam the shambolic showing the under-21s put in on Friday night. Unfortunately, he was part of it.
He isn’t shirking responsibility. Far from it. He’s the one who’s coming out to do his press duties and calling it out for what it is. Whilst cynics will say he should be defending his teammates, the truth is he would be defending the indefensible.
Scotland were brutal against Turkey on Friday night. They barely had a genuine goalscoring opportunity whilst the Turks could’ve won a lot more comfortably than the 2-0 scoreline showed. It’s a result that all but ends our hopes of Euro qualification too – so where was the hunger from the players?
Welsh, of course, suffered perhaps the most unfortunate moment in the match. Turkey’s second goal took a huge deflection off his right foot and wrongfooted Cieran Slicker. It was simply one of those moments and summed up how the night went as a whole.
Next up for the under-21s is a must-win game in Kazakhstan. However, even 3 points there wouldn’t do much in the grand scheme. Turkey was also a must-win and the players bottled it under the Tynecastle lights.
Fair play to Welsh for coming out and hammering the performance. He isn’t wrong.
In other news, Greek Report: Yet more class news for Celtic as Giakoumakis likely to be rested for Greece
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
