THE RETURN OF A LEGEND

Scotland v Argentina
Hampden Park Nov 19 th 2008

Pics Gavin Newlands

In 1979, a young teenager by the name of Diego Maradona made his mark on the international football stage, when scored his first senior international goal in the hallowed shrine of Hampden Park .

Seven years, later now a world football superstar, Diego became a Scottish National hero when his infamous "Hand of God" goal contributed to England 's exit from the Mexico World Cup in 1986, not forgetting the second strike that followed soon after, regarded as one of the greatest World Cup goals ever.

Now on Nov 19 th , the unofficial Scottish National Hero was back on the hallowed turf to kick start a new chapter in his international football career - this time as Argentina Boss.

Despite missing a few of his star players, the football legend promised a feast of football and for the first twenty minutes, George Burley's scratch side found themselves in a different planet chasing shadows.

And when Maxi Rodriguez gave the visitors the lead after eight minutes at the end of a superb passing move involving Carlos Tevez and Jonas Gutierrez., the 32,000 Scottish fans the prospect of the mauling that most people were expecting.

But when Burley encouraged his troops to push up, the Scots did have their chances to score, with James McFadden coming close twice before half time and continued to push forward throughout the second half, but could not give the fans anything to cheer about and exert enough pressure on their Juan Pablo Carrizo.

And with the media scrum in the press conference after the game, the new Argentina Boss, was on the receiving end of some stick from his home press, but was insisted that despite the low score line, he was delighted with the way his team played.

"It was a great experience and I was relaxed throughout," he said. "It was a clear victory for us. We were brilliant for the first 25 minutes and scored a goal but we couldn't convert our half chances. "

"We gave the ball away too easily but even then Scotland couldn't capitalise so we deserved our victory."

As a Coach, Maradona may be have been surprise choice as National Boss, having little managerial experience, but after watching his team in action, he is very clear about the task that awaits his side and about his chances in reaching the forthcoming World Cup.

"I have dedicated myself 100% this week to lifting the morale of the players," said Maradona. "We needed to get out of a bad run. We reached a low point with the defeat against Chile but it wasn't a case of blaming other people but working out why. "

"The national association didn't sit back; they appointed a new coach and I have succeeded in removing the fear of defeat from the players."

"It has been a long time since we won and expressed ourselves on the pitch like that. Tonight we played for the blue and white and for the people of Argentina ."

Maradona's daughter had suffered a pregnancy scare before the match which resulted in her fiancé and Argentina striker Sergio Aguero missing the game to return home to Spain "I've been thinking of my daughter and her baby and the lads made things easy for me during a difficult time," added Maradona.

"She was happy for me to be here leading the Argentina side. The players wore the shirt with pride and made me proud."

And the Argentine Boss, did have a reason to raise a smile when a journalist asked if had talked to former England star, Terry Butcher, now the Scotland Assistant Boss, who was on the receiving end of Maradona guile and skills during that game in 1986 and said that he would refuse to shake his hand after the game.

"Who is Butcher?" he responded. "I greeted the manager of Scotland tonight - who is this guy Butcher you talk about?"

He then broke out in a huge grin and added: "Since all this news about my daughter, this is the first time I've managed to laugh."

And at the end of the game, Scotland Boss, had every reason to smile about his side's performance and insisted that the game was worthwhile exercise.

"We were able to use a number of players and I was very pleased with the way it went," said Burley.

"We introduced some new players and they worked very hard. Overall, I'm very pleased, it was a great workout. "

"It was a tremendous exercise for us. Argentina are a fantastic team with great quality."

Maxi Rodriguez scored the game's only goal as Argentina made their superiority count in the opening stages. "

"They overran us in the first 15 minutes with their movement and our midfielders couldn't get near them," added Burley.

"Once we pushed higher up the park, we did very well. We held our own and had one or two little opportunities."

And it was not long before the visitors stamped their class on Scotland when McGregor parried clear a 25 yard volley from Javier Mascherano in 6 minutes.

Then 2 minutes later some terrific skill from Carlos Tevez, laid the ball out to Jonas Guitierrez, who set up Maxi Rodriguez to drive the ball home from tens yards.

Scotland showed that they can play some football when in 20 mins they started to push forward and a square ball into the box from Kris Commons saw McFadden's final close range effort deflected for a corner.

During the next five mins Scotland were on the offensive, trying to exert some pressure on a nervy keeper.

Scotland came close again in 33 minutes when Commons curling diagonal free kick from the edge of the box finished inches away from the boot of Kirk Broadfoot.

The home side were knocking on the door again when McFadden took advantage of some slack defending inside the penalty area but his final shot did not have enough power to trouble the keeper.

Going into the second half, this was nothing likke the festival of football that was getting billed, but as the game progressed, Scotland were by no means out of this game, but still could not find a way to the visitors goal mouth.

The South Americans still looked very comfortable in distributing the ball around and at times, looked as if it was a training exercise.

Scotland were still showing signs of creativity in middle and down the flanks but they going not deliver any decent service to the strikers with the final ball.

And despite their efforts, they never looked like scoring. For the Scotland Boss, it was worthwhilel venture, for the fans, not much of a football feast, but it was not every day that a legend comes to town