NED: -.

SCO: -.

NED: van der Sar 6; Reisiger 7, Bogarde 6, de Kock 5, Seedorf 5; Witschge 5 (Cocu, 77), R. de Boer 5 (Winter, 68 - 5), Davids 5, Taument 5 (Kluivert, 62 - 4); Bergkamp 5, Jordi 6.

SCO: Goram 6; McKimmie 5, Boyd 4, Calderwood 5, HENDRY 7; McAllister 6, McCall 6, Gallacher 4 (McKinlay, 56 - 5), Collins 6; Durie 5, Booth 5 (Spencer, 46 - 5).

REFEREE: Leiph Sundell (Sweden).

AUDIENCE: 36.000, Villa Park, Birmingham.

YELLOW CARDS: Taument, Witschge (Netherlands); Boyd, Gallacher (Scotland).

RED CARDS: NONE.

The first nil draw of the Championship, but there is no disappointment. The 1st half was the best we've seen by now, and in the 2nd half, Holland pressed and pressed, especially during the last 10 minutes, but could do nothing to break the defence of this nice team, Scotland.

To tell you the truth, I love Cinderellas, and despite my prediction of 2:0 to the Oranges, "My Heart Was In Highland", citing the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. Scotland was well-organised, with a leadership of the wonderful Hendry in its defence; McAllister and Collins performed the counterattacks to make the Dutch hearts tremble. Andy Goram made two incredible saves to prove us once again that he is some keeper to watch in this tournament, joining the by-now-created club of Mihailov, Pascolo and Schmeichel. And even the referee's mistake in favour of Scotland didn't spoil the taste of the result, as the feeling was that Scotland deserved fully to take a point. Holland was disappointing, except for Reisiger, Bogarde and Edvin van der Sar; Jordi Cruyff tried a lot "In The Name Of The Father", but there was nobody to support him.

Holland started the game with a terrific pressure, and the Scotts couldn't pass the central line for a long time. After 6 minutes, Bergkamp penetrated at the left wing and found Seedorf in the box; the shot of Seedorf from 8 meters was parried incredibly by Goram, and Taument's rebound was deflected to a corner. A corner was performed, a ball walked through all the players, and Collins cleared it from the goal-line; a replay showed beyond any doubt that a hand had been used there. It was the only serious referee's mistake, but a pretty crucial one.

Scotland managed to perform several extremely dangerous counterattacks, at this stage. Van der Sar fisted away the shot of Collins (14), and then McAllister shot weakly to van der Sar's hands (15). The best chance of Scotland came after 20 minutes, when McAllister shot a deadly curved free kick, and van der Sar was at his best to parry it to the corner from under his right crossbar. In between, Bergkamp (16) managed to pass Andy Goram, but then waited for the Messiah to come instead of rolling it home.

23 minutes gone, and Hendry headed the ball away from the goal-line. The corner was executed, the confusion was full, and nobody saw the ball except for Bergkamp who shot a flat killer from 10 meters; however, Andy Goram stretched incredibly to parry the ball coming from under the fence of legs. "The Save Of The Game", if not of the whole first round.

Holland went on pressing and continued to miss. Witschge (36) and Ronald de Boer (49) shot high, and a good header of Seedorf (52) went high too, from the ground. The counterattacks of Booth (42) and McAllister (47) didn't change the whole trend - Holland attacking, Scotland defending. Hendry blocked the killer of De Boer from 20 meters (56), and McKimmie managed to deny Cruyff in the box (61); Jordi demanded a penalty kick, but got just a corner, a right decision this time. Seedorf wasted another opportunity (72), again just a corner. In between, Gordon Durie (72) could've completed the surprise, but his shot was bad and went out.

83 minutes gone, and the wonderful Hendry headed away the header of Aron Winter. 85: Kluivert didn't reach the ball sent to him by de Boer, and Seedorf was blocked to the corner again. Another corner. And another corner. 90: Winter shot high from 25 meters. The same was the destiny of de Boer's shot a minute afterwards. And here the final whistle came. The Scotts have brought the pride to their fans, while the Dutch will have to check the wrong in order to advance to the next round.

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