Third place now the target, admits Clarke

Scots’ qualification hopes via Group I are over after another Hampden humbling

Scotland manager Steve Clarke admitted it is game over as far as qualification for Euro 2020 via the group is concerned.

Clarke is now targeting third spot, some decent displays and results leading into the Nations League play-offs.

The Scots were swept aside by Belgian captain Kevin de Bruyne and his talented teammates on a humbling night at Hampden.

The Manchester City star laid on three goals and scored the final one in a dominant 4-0 win for the world’s number one team.

It leaves them toiling in fifth spot in Euro 2020 Qualifying Group I, behind the Belgians, Russia, Kazakhstan and now Cyprus. Only minnows San Marino are worse off.

Now it is all about the play-offs. Asked about the position in the table, Clarke said: “The group is over in terms of qualification. What we have to do – and we spoke about it after the game – is target third position.

“It doesn’t look very good where we are in the table just now. There are 12 points still up for grabs and we have to make sure we finish third.

“That would be good in terms of ranking and seeding. It will also mean that we have performed well, won a few games and picked up points.

“That would give us confidence going into the play-off games.”

Clarke admitted the defeat was terrible and will be working on sorting out the defending of set-pieces.

“You have to address the result and 4-0 is not a good scoreline,” he said.

“We shot ourselves in the foot in the first half. We had our setplay and then 10 seconds later we were 1-0 down.

“We had started on the front foot again in the game but we lost a further two goals from set-plays – corner kicks.

“We spoke before the match about when you play a team of Belgium’s quality it is almost imperative that you don’t concede from set-plays. So we were 3-0 down at half-time having played some good stuff.

“It is, though, difficult to sell positives when you have lost 4-0 at home.

“You can’t avoid the scoreline and I’m not trying to do that but I think if people look at the game tonight there were times when we looked like we can become a decent team.”

Defender Charlie Mulgrew believes there have been some signs of improvement in this double-header but admitted that the manner of the goals they are conceding masks that fact.

“Obviously we want to get results but we have to find a way of playing for these play-off games,” he said.

“Results bring confidence. I know it doesn’t sound right but parts of that performance were good tonight.

“But at the end of the day we’ve lost 4-0 and there’s no getting away from that.

“It’s hard to get over but that’s our fault. The type of goals we’re conceding can be fixed.

“We wanted to keep it tight and the first goal we lost was from our set-piece. We’d discussed before the game how good they were on the break but world class players choose the right time to make a pass.

“The second goal was a second phase of a set-piece.

“At half-time it was a low moment in that changing room but we showed character.”

Picture: SNS. Steve Clarke at Hampden as he watches his side lose to the world’s No 1 side Belgium.