Scotland fires coach after 1 of worst results in its history

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This article was published 18/04/2019 (2724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GLASGOW, Scotland – Scotland has fired coach Alex McLeish after one of the worst results in the national team’s history.

A 3-0 loss to Kazakhstan in a European Championship qualifier last month was highlighted by the Scottish Football Association when the governing body announced the departure of McLeish on Thursday.

In his second spell as Scotland coach, McLeish won five of his 12 games and guided the team to first place in its Nations League qualifying group. That guarantees the Scots a playoff match to qualify for Euro 2020.

In its Euro 2020 qualifying group, Scotland followed up its humiliating loss to Kazakhstan with an unconvincing 2-0 win over San Marino, the world’s lowest-ranked nation.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell says “the performances and results as a whole in the past year — and, in particular, the manner of the defeat in Kazakhstan — did not indicate the progress expected with a squad we believe to be capable of achieving more.”

Scotland hasn’t qualified for a major tournament since reaching the World Cup in 1998.

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