Adams sure victory over Ukraine will worry Irish
CHE ADAMS insists Scotland’s emphatic victory over Ukraine will have struck fear into the Republic of Ireland ahead of tomorrow night’s Nations League showdown at Hampden.
The Scots produced an outstanding performance to triumph 3-0 against the Ukrainians on Wednesday, teeing up a mouthwatering clash with the Irish in Glasgow. Steve Clarke’s side will be looking to avenge the 3-0 defeat they suffered in Dublin back in June, a display which Adams admits was nowhere near good enough.
But the Southampton striker insists the team are now riding a wave of confidence on the back of a victory over Ukraine which was built on positive attacking football. ‘We weren’t at it that day in the last game against Ireland,’ said the 26-year-old. ‘There are no excuses. ‘Now we have to put that right at the weekend and show what we are about. They will have seen that result against Ukraine and they will be worried. ‘We owe Ireland now from the summer. It is going to be a good game and I’m excited for it.’ Adams was excellent in setting the tone for Scotland up front, although he admitted that he should have got on to the scoresheet when missing some good chances.
He has targeted two wins from the next two games for Scotland to top the group, starting with Ireland tomorrow before the return fixture against Ukraine in Poland on Tuesday. ‘We had a lot of chances but I should have scored,’ he said. ‘The team are good now and we could have scored more.
‘Looking back, I definitely should have had one goal. Then Lyndon (Dykes) came on and scored two and that is just the way football is. ‘He played very well. It was a top performance from everyone. We are good enough now to put teams under pressure. That is what the gaffer has told us to do, bring more pressure to the opposition, and we definitely pushed on more to them in the second half and caused them issues.
‘We went in at half-time and were full of belief that we could win because we dominated the first half. Then we went on to dominate the whole of the game. ‘It is one of those where we have to take that performance into the rest of the games and hopefully we can get results.
‘That’s what the manager wanted (to top the group) and to show what this team is capable of doing. ‘We definitely did that against Ukraine because it could have been a lot more. We dominated the game throughout.’