Watch and learn from Robertson
AS Cristiano Ronaldo prepared to pull the trigger, the world prepared for another Real Madrid goal in a Champions League final. Andrew Robertson had other ideas.
The Liverpool full-back, a 24-year-old from Giffnock, produced a world-class tackle on a world-class player.
Seven thousand miles from Kiev, gathered round a hotel screen in the Peruvian capital of Lima, a makeshift Scotland squad were urged to watch and learn.
To take inspiration from Robertson’s journey from Hampden ball-boy to Champions League finalist and believe they, too, can aspire to that level.
‘We just need to show the boys a picture of Andy Robertson from a couple of years ago,’ said coach Peter Grant. ‘It’s fantastic.
‘Look at where Andy has gone since playing for Queen’s Park.
‘That shows you his determination and guts — and that is what Scotland has always been built on. We have that.
‘Technique is important, but technique is only part of it. It is about enthusiasm, drive, determination, guts.
‘We are all excited for him. It is fantastic he is part of our group. I know what the Liverpool fans think of him, I know they rave about him. It is fantastic to have him in the Premier League.’
Ultimately Liverpool — and Robertson’s — night ended in deep and bitter disappointment. Only the third Scot after Steve Archibald and Paul Lambert to play in a Champions League final in 32 years, the decisive influence on the final came instead from a Welshman, Gareth Bale.
Yet Robertson had a fine game, his achievements in the last five years a reminder that there is no genetic impediment to Scottish footballers reaching the highest level of world football.
‘In international football you go to the big arenas, to the European Championships, to the World Cup,’ said Grant, back working at the side of Alex McLeish after spells with Birmingham and Aston Villa. ‘That has to be your aim as a football player. That is the ultimate. The Champions League finals.
‘Such big occasions used to be full of Scottish boys back in the day. That is the biggest plus.
‘If you don’t want to play in that, then why play? That is what we have to try and get through to these players.
‘It is a shop window every time you pull a jersey, whether it is your club side or the national side.
‘You have to show everybody all the time how good a player you are. All of a sudden you might become a player in Scotland, you might become a player in England and then all the Europeans are talking about you. That can only be good for Scottish football.’
Training times meant Scotland’s squad, preparing for a friendly with Peru in the early hours of Wednesday, were unable to watch countryman Tom Cairney fire Fulham into the Premier League with a priceless strike against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Yet Grant takes heart from the growing number of Scots forcing their way into the English elite.
‘We were certainly hoping Fulham would go up and then we’d have two other Scottish guys with an opportunity to play in the Premier League,’ he said.
‘Big Callum (Paterson) has been promoted (with Cardiff), so there’s another guy playing in the Premier League.
‘It has been a long time since we’ve had a lot of Scottish guys in the Premier League, but that’s what we want to try and achieve.
‘The bigger the games they play the more it will help us as a nation.’
At the international school in Lima where the Scots are using training facilities, the clamour of young fans to see Manchester United’s Scott McTominay served as a reminder of English football’s global profile. For players, the rewards for striking the EPL jackpot come in multiple forms.
‘There were people at our training with Manchester United strips on,’ added Grant.
‘The more we have in the Premier League, because it is such a global thing now, the better it will be for us.
‘The higher the level these guys can play the better. But the most important thing is they aren’t sitting on the bench.
‘If they are, then when they meet up with the Scotland squad they haven’t played for six weeks.
‘We don’t want to get into that situation again. I would rather the boys were playing. You can see that with the ones Alex likes to select — 95 per cent of them are playing every game. That puts them in good fettle.
‘Young Lewis Morgan has played in the Championship with St Mirren and all of a sudden he is here.
‘We have to try and make him feel he isn’t second best to anyone else. He is here because he deserves to be here. He can’t sit back and be scared of it.’
SAYS PETER GRANT