David Marshall's Euro Diary Day 6 - Scotland the Mediocre (Patreon)

The saga continues then, I’m still not feeling well. But, slightly better, so hopefully I’m getting to the end of this. Negatives from today, well I woke up choking on myself this morning but I actually got to have my dinner tonight so swings and roundabouts.

Anyway, day 6! We started with yet another cracker as Croatia took on Albania with both sides looking to come back from opening game defeats. Albania got off to another fast start as Qazim Laci managed to squeeze a header into the net.

The rest of the half was open from there and Albania passed up on a big chance to take a two-goal lead into the break. At half time however, I was considering the obituary I might be writing for this Croatia team that has achieved so much recently but is ageing and it looks like this could be one tournament too far for this group.

To their credit, they responded well and two goals in the space of two minutes looked like it might give them the win they desperately craved. Andrej Kramarić provided a cool finish for the equaliser, slotting the ball through the defender's legs and just to the side of the goalie. A proper striker’s finish. He was pivotal in the second as he wrestled the ball back in the box and played it across goal into the danger area. The ball bounced around before finally settling in the net for another own goal at this tournament.

It looked like heartbreak for Albania but they managed to find another gear and put it into H as they went looking for the equaliser. They threw everything at it and finally got their reward on the 95th minute when Klaus Gjasula earned his side a well deserved point.

Another game that finished and you got a wee sad feeling because you just wanted to keep watching these two teams go at it! This tournament just keeps delivering.

We go back to group A for the second game of the day featuring Germany and Hungary. Another entertaining game but it was Germany who scored the vital first goal. Hungary made the mistake of stopping when they thought the danger was dealt with, but the German Bltizkreig continued and the ball was eventually turned into the net by Jamal Musiala.

The Hungarians were now chasing the game and doing a reasonable job at it, coming perilously close on numerous occasions to getting the equaliser. For a brief second, they thought they got it from Roland Sallai's header but the flag went up and the score would remain as it was at the break.

Into the second half, Hungary continued to puff away but dinner was served to them by Ilkay Gundogan who doubled the host’s lead. They certainly had to work much harder than in their opening game but Germany became the first team through to the Last 16.

To the final game of the day and was it to be redemption for Scotland? Kinda, a wee bit, in a way, but not really.

Scotland got off to the perfect start thanks to a deflected goal from Scott McTominay and for a short while, they were looking good value for the lead. That was until the Celtic right back played a perfectly timed ball into the path of Xherdan Shaqiri who fired an excellent first-time shot past Angus Gunn.

From there I would say the Swiss had the best of the rest of the half. Scotland were saved by the offside flag and by a good save from Gunn, who I thought had a good game tonight. Despite that though, going into halftime, I thought this game was there to be won for Scotland.

The truth of the matter however is that Scotland didn’t do enough in the second half to win the game. Outside of Grant Hanley’s header hitting the post, Scotland created very little. It was a much better performance than a 5-1 pumping and it was very industrious and had plenty of energy. But over the course, I think with the chances that the Swiss missed they should have probably won the game reasonably comfortably.

As it is though, it was a point a piece and Scotland stay alive going into the third round of games knowing that a win against Hungary is a must to have any chance of qualifying.

Tomorrow looks like a tasty wee day. Serbia and Slovenia should be interesting with both teams looking for the win, England with a tricky tie against Denmark. All wrapped up with a mouth-watering main event of Spain vs Italy, so you get settled in and I’ll fetch you a plate of the cheap crap.