McLeish: ‘Best football we’ve ever seen’

ALEX McLeish described the football played by the Spanish side that ended Scotland’s European Championship qualifying hopes as the best he has ever seen.

“It is phenomenal,” said the former Scotland international defender who is now in charge at Aston Villa. “We have never seen football like this – certainly in my lifetime.

“I think it was the Brazilians in the 1970 that really turned me on to the foreign element.

“But this Spanish team are playing football that has been difficult for anyone to copy.

“For Scotland, it was important to get something from the second-half and not collapse. I thought it was a great second-half from Scotland. They got the goal and there were another couple of chances as well. Scotland restored a lot of pride in the second-half.

“The first goal summed things up for Spain – clinical, professional, ruthless. Absolutely fantastic. You just cannot mark Silva. It was a fantastic performance.”