1 week Ago
STEVE Clarke tonight labelled Scotland’s performance in their victory over former World Cup finalists Croatia at Hampden as the poorest of their Nations League campaign and insisted they can play far better in their must-win match with Poland. The national team, who triumphed against Luka Modric and his compatriots thanks to the late goal that John McGinn scored, can finish second in Group A1, go through to the quarter-finals of the competition and receive a seeding for World Cup qualifying as a result of the epic result. They need to prevail in Warsaw on Monday night and hope that Portugal defeat Croatia in Split at the same time.
If the results go their way, they will still require to have a superior goal difference to progress to the last eight. If they lose or draw they will be automatically relegated. Clarke was delighted that Scotland gave their supporters their first competitive victory in over a year to cheer – but he felt that his charges could have played far better in the final third and is looking for a significant improvement in their next outing.
“First of all it's nice to have a win on the board in a competitive match,” he said. “So I’m really pleased for the players. The effort they've put in up until now has deserved more points and it's nice to get that win.
“But as I came off the pitch I thought, ‘We can play better’. I think we can be better with the ball, I think we can be more clinical when we get to the final third of the pitch. Obviously, the sending off (Croatia were reduced to 10 men just before half-time) changes the direction of the game, but we were due a little break.
“I've always said this is a group of players that want to be successful and want to do well for their country. You could see that again tonight. We were maybe not as good as we can be with the ball, but it was another clean sheet.
That's two in a row. If you don't concede goals you always have a chance to win the game. “Fortunately, we've got people coming off the bench that can score goals as well.
It was nice to get John on the pitch. I thought his finish was really good because it wasn't an easy finish. “We've been building performances.
If I'm being honest, I think tonight was probably one of our poorest performances out of the five games that we've played so far. But we got the little breaks that fell in our favour tonight and we managed to turn that into a win. “But that's not to forget all the good work that we've done up until now.
We also had a lot of chances in the game. We got to areas of the pitch where we should have done a little bit better, maybe get a better scoreline against the 10 men. “When it was 11 v 11 we struggled at times to get the ball passed around.
They pressed us very, very well. They're a top side. But what we have done is we've beaten a top European side here at Hampden.
We've done that before against the likes of Spain, Denmark. So we know that we can be competitive at home.” Clarke added: “So we have to take a lot of good from that.
Now we have to go away from home. It's a difficult game for us and try and get the win in. “From the way we started the group, we were always conscious that we'd probably have to go to Poland to get a result.
That's where we are and it's in our own hands. We have to go there, play as well as we can without the ball, but play a little bit better with the ball. “We have to win.
Our first job is to go there and win. If we do that then we'll count up the goals and whatever afterwards. But let's take it a step at a time.
It's been a hell of a long time since we got a win, now we've got to get another one on Monday night. So it'd be nice to get back to back.” Clarke handed 19-year-old winger Ben Doak a start once again and was delighted when the Liverpool player, who is on loan at Middlesbrough, set up McGinn for the winner with four minutes of regulation time remaining.
Asked about Doak’s display, he said: “It was good, it was good. But I thought he might be. He's come into the team, he's shown a really positive attitude, he brings us something a little bit different to what we've had before.
“So I'm really pleased with Ben. He gets the assist for the goal with the run, could maybe have had a couple more, could maybe have scored one himself. So that's a contribution from a young player that we need to protect and look after but realise that he's good for now and hopefully for a long time in the future.
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