Scotland boss Gordon Strachan admits making mistake with France friendly
Friday 10 June 2016 14:14, UK
Scotland manager Gordon Strachan admits he should never have taken his side to France last week.
Strachan has said it was a "huge mistake" agreeing to face the Euro 2016 hosts just days before the tournament.
Scotland were thrashed 3-0 by Les Bleus in Metz on June 6 and Strachan believes the defeat has only added further misery to a team already struggling to come to terms with their failure to qualify for Euro 2016.
Strachan told the Daily Record: "At this point, I'm going to hold my hands up here and admit I made a huge mistake in taking the team to France last week for that friendly in Metz. All it did was give us a taste of what is about to come before having to walk away from it.
"I'm now struggling to work out what I was thinking about when I took that game on. I've got to take responsibility for that because I hoped our players would enjoy it but, when faced with the reality of it, they realised there's a huge tournament about to begin and we're not welcome at it.
"We saw the excitement of the people over there, the security - the whole enormous scale of the thing - and it made us feel even more miserable about ourselves."
The competition kicks off on Friday night when France take on Romania, but the former Celtic and Southampton boss has already lost interest.
Strachan, who will be in Bordeaux on Saturday to see Wales take on Slovakia, said: "I've got to be honest, this tournament hasn't even started yet and I'm sick of it already.
"I switch off the telly whenever the trailers come on. I can't watch any of the updates on the sports channels. I've literally blanked myself from the enjoyment of Euro 2016 because I feel responsible for the fact that we're not
there."
