STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) – Scotland were denied a legitimate penalty in the second half of Sunday’s loss to Hungary that could have changed the outcome of their final Group A match at the Euros, manager Steve Clarke said.
Scotland substitute attacker Stuart Armstrong was caught on the thigh by Hungary defender Willi Orban but his claims for a spotkick in the 79th minute was waved away by Argentine referee Facundo Tello.
The contest, which both sides needed to win, was delicately poised at the time but Hungary went away to score with the final kick of the game in the 10th minute of stoppage time to finish third while sending Scotland home.
“It was 100% a penalty. Somebody, somewhere has to explain to me why that’s not a penalty. It’s a one goal game, we get the penalty and it could have been a different night.
“I’ve got other words, but I’m not going to use them,” said an obviously exasperated Clarke. “I don’t understand how VAR can look at that and say it’s not a penalty.
“In a European competition, it may have been better to have a European referee but we had European VAR and maybe a referee didn’t see the challenge clearly on the pitch, so what’s the purpose of VAR if they are not going to come in on something like that. It was a penalty.”
Clarke, who has qualified Scotland for two successive Euros, called it an even contest, as both sides struggled to create any real chances and it only really opened up near the end.
“We gave everything, there’s nothing you can fault there. It was a very tough game against a good opponent. A very close game that was always going to be decided by the first goal. You could tell that after half an hour.
“Unfortunately for us when we opened up towards the end of the game to try and chase the winner, that we felt we needed to get to the next stage, we got caught on the counter.”
Kevin Csoboth’s goal means Hungary will wait over the next days to see whether they advance as one of the four best third-placed finishers.
But for Scotland, their run of failure at major tournaments continues.
“I feel the same as everyone who is Scottish I would imagine – disappointed and sad. That’s it,” added the manager.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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