WHAT A BOOT IN THE BAWS
Scots could face Euros Group of Death v France, Portugal and England IF we get through play-offs
SCOTLAND’S reward for finally making it to a major tournament after 22 years could be a nightmare group that includes both the world and European champions – as well as England.
Steve Clarke, left, will discover his opponents from the UEFA Nations League play-offs, to decide the final four teams to qualify for next summer’s Euro 2020, tomorrow. Clarke’s Scots can end a 22-year
SCOTLAND’S Euro 2020 campaign started and ended with a Kazakhstan cracker into the top left bag.
But for Callum McGregor, it is what happened next that shows their play-off potential.
Eight months to the day, the Celtic star believes Scotland boast a resilience they did not the day of that 3-0 Nur-Sultan shocker.
McGregor reckons that mental strength was built after emerging from a four-in-a-woe run of defeats to Belgium and Russia with 13 goals shipped.
As far as the 26-year-old is concerned, a corner was turned when Scotland hit San Marino for six in the first of a three-game winning streak as they followed up away to Cyprus then at home to the Kazakhs on Tuesday.
Scotland twice recovered from setbacks in their latest doubleheader as John McGinn scored one of seven goals in his last six caps six minutes after conceding
GAVIN BERRY
sport@dailyrecord.co.uk an equaliser in Nicosia before flipping a half-time deficit to win 3-1 at Hampden.
McGregor says that grit has helped put pride back in the jersey and hopes the stayaway Tartan Army members will pack out Hampden for the mammoth play-off semi-final come March.
Having made it through so much doom and gloom around the national side, he wants to bank the feelgood factor until the squad regroup for their bid to end a 22-year wait for a major finals.
The midfielder, capped 19 times, said: “We might not have come back from 1-0 down at the start of the campaign.
“And that’s probably been the change in mentality – even in the last seven days.
“Previously when we lost a goal, we were guilty of heads going down and we could not get back into the game.
“But especially that second 45 minutes, we’ve turned a corner in terms of intensity, the way we want to play and the way we want to press the game.
“When we conceded the equaliser in Cyprus you saw the reaction – we scored a goal almost straight away.
“There is probably that bit of belief in the squad and in the team that if we do go behind we can still win games because we are pressing and we have good players who can unlock defences.
“And with John scoring goals at will, everyone just feels a bit better about themselves.
“Within the group everyone can now believe because of what we have done on the pitch.
“You can talk a good game but you have to go and show it on the pitch and you have to get results.
“Once you start to get one or two results everyone starts to think, ‘All right, maybe we have changed’.
“That’s why it is important to get these two wins together.
“We could easily have drawn the game but we went on to win 3-1 and finished really strongly.
“Come March, everyone is feeling good about it and we turn up and play with that intensity again. The confidence is there and we will try to bank that and take it to March.
“That belief just comes from the group of players winning games and the experience of coming through the difficult moments as well.
“We had four really tough back-to-back games that almost killed the group for us.
“Everyone’s mentality from the outside looking in was like, ‘Oh no, here we go again’. But they
were four difficult games and obviously off the back of those fixtures, the 6-0 win over San Marino was a big turning point.
“People were probably turning up and going, ‘Well, we were supposed to win by that margin’. But as a group of players we still had to go out there and do it.
“It was a big turning point. We scored six goals and we have come away this week and scored a lot of goals and in probably tougher games as well.”
Scotland will be paired with one of Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary or Israel in tomorrow’s play-off draw in Nyon.
It was against Israel in the Nations League this time last year they made sure of their place in the hat, the last time they came from a goal behind to win up until Tuesday night in Mount Florida.
The semi-final will be staged at Hampden on March 26, with the final just five days later.
And that could make it a mad
March for McGregor who also has an Old Firm derby at Ibrox and the potential of a Europa League last-16 tie if Neil Lennon’s men can negotiate the first knockout round the month before.
He said: “We have won away in Cyprus – which is a difficult place to go – then won 3-1 against Kazakhstan and finished the game really strongly.
“We have to try to learn from the four defeats and when we go into March we take that experience plus the good week we have had here.
“Everyone should feel good about it.
“Hopefully we get the stadium full then everyone comes with that belief we
can do it. It’s about trying to bank that feeling.
“We will go away and obviously club stuff will take care of itself between now and March but when we come back we will all be in a better place.
“The manager will feel good about himself, the players will feel good and we can go about trying to fill this stadium and make sure we get there.” McGregor’s Hoops team- mate James Forrest netted a sizzling Hampden hat-trick in that 3-2 win over Israel that salvaged hopes of a place at next
summer’s finals. Ahead of the draw, McGregor said: “Israel are a good side as well.
“They showed that over the two games. Whoever we get, we should be full of confidence.
“If we play like we did against Kazakhstan, play with that intensity and press the way we did, then we fancy ourselves against anyone.
“Slowly but surely we are getting there. It is a new group of players and we changed manager halfway through the campaign, which is always difficult as well.
“Straight away the gaffer is under pressure to turn it around.
“It has been a positive end to the campaign.
“Obviously it is disappointing we did not qualify but the work we did last November got us to a place where we can try to qualify.
“We have to be positive and go into these games confident we can do it.”
We might not have come back from 1-0 at start of the campaign
CALLUM McGREGOR ON SCOTS’ POWERS OF RECOVERY