Vogts now eyeing play-off spot

Scotland manager Berti Vogts believes the way is now clear for his side to clinch the Euro 2004 play-off berth he had been targeting all along.

The 1-1 draw at Hampden Park with group leaders Germany yesterday was by far the best result of Vogts’ tenure to date and kept the Scots level on points with Rudi Voller’s team.

Germany have a game in hand and will use that up in the Faroe Islands on Wednesday night, when Lithuania are also in action at home to Iceland.

Lithuania and Iceland are still very much part of the equation, with the former level on points with the top two and the latter now a single point behind courtesy of a 2-1 win over the Faroes in Reykjavik yesterday, for which a last-minute winner was required.

But Vogts was convinced that home victories over the Faroes in September and Lithuania in October would be enough to secure second place at least, regardless of the score in Dortmund in September when they take on the Germans for the second time.

Vogts said: “Can we win the group? Ask me after the game in Germany. But if we could get six points from those two home games I would be happy with that.”

The Scots had been well worth their point and showed far more resilience than in recent matches by recovering from the early blow of going 1-0 down to Fredi Bobic’s header.

Wolves striker Kenny Miller took advantage of a quickly-taken free-kick from clubmate Colin Cameron midway through the second half to net his second goal for his country.

Vogts said: “I think it was a professional goal. It was played very quickly and the Germans were not very professional.”

Bobic’s goal had been a poor one as well however, as Steven Pressley had mistimed a jump to allow the striker to head home a cross from Torsten Frings.

And it had not been the first time this season that the Scots had found themselves trailing at home either.

Vogts admitted: “It was the first cross that had come in and it was a mistake on the defender’s part. It was one chance, one goal.

“It made the Germans a little bit more confident but we came back. We pushed forward and it was OK.

“There was only one mistake from my team today. We have to learn from this and when we lost against the Irish Republic there was an early goal against us - and also against Austria.

“Even the equaliser against New Zealand was part of 20 very bad minutes for us. I watched it on the tape and told the players they had to go forward more - not wait for the second goal against us.”

Germany boss Rudi Voller lamented his side’s inability to net the follow-up goal he believed would have been enough to take all three points.

He said: “We were not cold-blooded enough to exploit that more when the Scotland team was off-balance because a 2-0 lead would surely have settled the game for good.

“But if you don’t score then you get punished.”