Scottish Hearts Broken 蘇格蘭隊再次受挫

The mood outside Hampden Park was a confident one before the crucial Euro 2012 qualifier between Scotland and the Czech Republic last Friday.

The home supporters descended on the national stadium hoping, and expecting, to see their heroes put the Czechs to the sword（比喻）將捷克隊置于死地。

The Scotland management team had been reluctant to label this match "win or bust" in the build-up, but the Tartan Army 蘇格蘭隊支持者 were in no doubt that nothing less than three points would do to keep Scotland's qualification hopes 入圍資格賽的希望 alive.

Scottish fans always embrace their duty to create an intimidating atmosphere 一種咄咄逼人的氣氛 for travelling teams to handle, and the supporters were pumped up 情緒高昂 before kick-off.

As a result of a nervy 令人精神緊張的 first-half, in which the Czechs had several good chances to score, the Tartan Army's rousing vocal support faded.

It took an unexpected slice of fortune 一絲運氣, when the Czech goalkeeper gifted Miller the opening goal right on half-time with a botched 失敗的，砸鍋了 attempted save.

The ground came to life again, but nobody was fooled that the lead Scotland took into the half-time break was merited 靠實力得分的。

And they could have no complaints when, 12 minutes from time, Bordeaux's Jaroslav Plasil pounced to prod home 輕松地把球挑進了球門 the equaliser.

The Tartan Army was stunned, and it appeared that qualification for another major tournament was slipping away.

Darren Fletcher appeared to have saved the day, with the captain finishing off some fine work from Miller.

But Scotland have a monopoly on the sting in the tail 事與愿違的厄運總在他們身上上演, having suffered from cruel twists of fate 受到命運的殘酷捉弄 more times than any supporter cares to remember.

The sucker punch 突然襲來的致命一拳 came just minutes from time when substitute Danny Wilson was penalised for a foul on Jan Rezek, although contact was difficult to detect even with the aid of replays.

The penalty was ruthlessly dispatched 毫不留情的作出決定 by Michal Kadlec and once again Scottish hearts were broken.

A late penalty claim 要求罰球 when Christophe Berra tumbled 翻滾 in the area was dismissed by the referee.

Scotland forward Steven Naismith had no doubt where the blame for this damaging result should be apportioned.

"The last five minutes of the game, the ref has two big decisions to make and he's got them both wrong," Naismith said.

"I wouldn't say it was our best performance, but we did what we needed to do.

"We got good goals at good times, we feel we had done enough to win the game but in the end it's bad decisions that have cost us."

The debate about the two penalty incidents will rage for a while yet, but for now, Scotland fans are left with that all too familiar feeling that qualification for a major championship is out of their hands.