James McFadden’s Scotland goal v The Netherlands in 2003
James McFadden had Hampden Park rocking in the Euro 2004 play-offs Thursday, November 9, 2017 It w..
James McFadden had Hampden Park rocking in the Euro 2004 play-offs
Thursday, November 9, 2017
It was a moment of pure magic and when James McFadden’s shot flew past Edwin van der Sar, the roar from Hampden could be heard for miles.
This was the goal that gave Scotland fans brief hope that a place at Euro 2004 was possible. The Dutch, ranked fifth in the world at the time, were beaten in the first leg of the 2003 play-offs and confidence was high ahead of the second leg in Amsterdam.
Scotland were dismissed before the game had even begun and most fans were probably hoping to keep the score respectable, but then a clever one-two with Darren Fletcher – a move you would probably expect the opposition to pull off – saw McFadden allow supporters to dream.
Sadly, it all came to a shattering end a week later when the Netherlands swept Berti Vogts’ team aside in a 6-0 thrashing. Ruud van Nistelrooy scored a hat-trick and there was a star performance from 19-year-old Wesley Sneijder.
