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Advocaat pitted against Scotland
FRANKFURT, Germany, -- Scotland will come face to face with former Glasgow Rangers manager Dick Advocaat when they meet the Netherlands in the Euro 2004 playoffs next month. Advocaat became Dutch national coach at the same time as he served as Director of Football at Ibrox, but he left the club in 2002, a year after Alex McLeish succeeded him as manager. In the other ties Spain play Norway, Latvia face Turkey, Russia come up against Wales and Croatia tackle Slovenia. Scotland's German coach Berti Vogts had hoped that his team would travel for the first leg of their playoff so that the climax would come in front of the partisan Hampden crowd, but the Scots will host the opening clash. Advocaat has first hand knowledge of the passion of the Scottish fans having been in charge of Rangers during many of their Old Firm clashes with Celtic. The Netherlands, former European champions, are desperate to qualify after missing the 2002 World Cup and they seem to have unearthed a new batch of promising youngsters. They will also be able to count on Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy who was banned for last weekend's 5-0 win over Moldova after clashing with Advocaat when he was substituted in last month's 3-1 loss to the Czech Republic. But Clarence Seedorf of AC Milan, who also missed Saturday's win over Moldova are after he complained about being made to play on the wing, might not be recalled. The underdogs"This is probably one of the toughest draws in the group but it is still just two games. We are the underdogs, but the Dutch have had problems in the qualifying," said Vogts. Russia's assistant coach Alexander Borodyuk was happy with the draw. "To play the first match at home against the Welsh team is one of the best possible results for us," he said. Norway coach Nils Johan Semb was much less enthusiastic about being drawn against Spain. "This will be extremely challenging," a disappointed-looking Semb told Norwegian tv just after the draw in Frankfurt. "We will have to work extremely hard. But nothing is impossible." Semb had said before the draw that the Netherlands were the team he feared most in the 10-nation play-offs with Spain next. Spain, third in the FIFA world rankings and the highest ranking nation in the draw, will be seeking revenge for their 1-0 loss to Norway in the finals of Euro 2000. Their coach Inaki Saez warned that the expected cold weather in Norway for the second leg could work to his team's disadvantage. "The fact is, playing the second match at home would have been better. Every player worries about climate. Not the cold itself, but ice and the effect on the field can make a game difficult," he said. Turkey, who were condemned to the playoffs when they were held 0-0 by England in Istanbul, have been paired with Latvia, who surprisingly qualified by beating Group Four winners Sweden 1-0 in Stockholm. The victory sent the small nation through at the expense of Poland, in what local media hailed as Latvia's greatest football achievement. Turkey's team manager, Can Cobanoglu, said: "We are certainly happy that we have drawn a team that is behind us in football terms. We were the victims of a road accident on Saturday and we don't want to repeat that."
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