Converting chances key to Scots’ hopes

Scotland face Israel tomorrow knowing that they need to find a clinical edge to get the win they might need to top their Nations League group.

A five- match winning streak came to an end with a 1-0 defeat in Slovakia on Sunday afternoon but Scotland could have won comfortably if they had taken even a reasonably modest portion of their chances.

Slovakia’s Marek Rodak, second-choice goalkeeper with Fulham, pulled off stunning stops from Kenny McLean and Le igh Griffiths, who both had other more difficult chances.

Stuart Armstrong, Liam Palmer and Ryan Christie also had opportunities and Oli McBurnie passed up three good openings to break his first international duck.

Before the match , manager Steve Clarke had dismissed suggestions he might have concerns over their goalscoring record, which now stands at six goals in seven matches this season.

He is still unlikely to be concerned about it given the plethora of chances his players created in Trnava and he will have Lyndon Dykes available after suspension in Netanya.

Scotland are likely to need three points to clinch Group B2 given that Czech Republic, who are one point adrift, host bottom team Slovakia having already beaten their neighbours 3-1 on the road.

De fender Kieran Tierney believes being more clinical could be the key to success.

“We know how good Israel can be, we know it’s going to be a tough game ,” the Arsenal defender told the Scotland National Team Twitter account.

“We are going to give it our best shot. If we play like Sunday then hopefully we can do that, just add goals to our game.

“You win or learn and we will learn a lot from Sunday and hopefully be more clinical if we get chances.

“To come away with nothing was quite harsh on us. I thought we did well, we created chances. You can’t really fault us in any way except the lack of goals.

“We were playing with confidence, we were on a high. We were unlucky to be fair.

“T he y are a good team, they were good playing from the back, they broke our press a few times and I think that led to the goal. It’s stuff we need to learn and I’m sure we will, we need to watch the videos back.

“We can’t dwell on it too long because we have another big game.”

Tierney could be asked to play his third game in six days with Andy Robertson struggling with a ham string issue, although Celtic leftback Greg Taylor is available.

A number of players rested in Slovakia are l ike ly to return , including David Marshall, Ryan Jack, Declan Gallagher and Callum McGregor.

Kieran Tierney.