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Scotland's national team coach Alex McLeish sticks to his opinion that his team will still qualify for the final stage of the 2008 European Championship despite a 2-0 loss against World Champion Italy. After two goals scored by Luca Toni, Italy won their third consecutive match and reduced their gap from the top three teams in Group B to just two points. Currently, Scotland, Ukraine, and France are in a tight competition in the group, with Scotland having played one more game. "We are still fiercely competing. Now we must look ahead and the match in Glasgow will be the most important thing in the qualification," stated A. McLeish. The next game for the Scottish national team will be against the group's underdogs, the Faroe Islands, followed by a meeting with the ambitious Lithuanian team. Meanwhile, Italy's victory against Scotland not only revived hopes of qualifying but also alleviated the immense pressure on the heavily criticized national team coach Roberto Donadoni. Before the match, some Italian newspapers wrote that if "Squadra Azzurra" lost to Scotland, the coach would be fired from his position. The Italian media attacked the 43-year-old former "Milan" and Italy defender, criticizing him ever since he took over the team from Marcello Lippi. The poor start in the European Championship qualification with just one point in the first two games exacerbated the situation. However, the third consecutive victory on Wednesday renewed Italy's hopes of qualifying for next year's European Championship. After the victory, national team players defended R. Donadoni. "Unfortunately in Italy, even before the match on the field, the battle starts in the newspapers. They 'skewer' Donadoni. We wanted to win this match not so much for ourselves, but for him. He is a great, hard-working coach. It's time to stop comparing Donadoni to Lippi. This is a bad habit in Italy," criticized Gennaro Gattuso the Italian media. "In my opinion, our only mistake was the 1-1 draw at home against the Lithuanian team. If we had taken our chances, today we would be at the top of the group," shared the Italian who spent the season at Glasgow Rangers. At the end of the interview, G. Gattuso added that Ukraine will pose more problems than Scotland in the race for the top two spots in the group. AC Milan defender Massimo Oddo also supported Donadoni. "The criticism he received before the match was completely unfair," said M. Oddo.
