Clarke doled out home truths at half-time

STEVE CLARKE has admitted he handed his Scotland players a blunt halftime reality check in the draw with Norway.

The national team manager revealed a “very calmly and very quietly” message to his players at the break inspired an improved second-half showing after a testimonial-like opening 45 minutes.

On his message at the break, Clarke said: “I obviously spoke very calmly and very quietly and just asked them to play with a little bit more intensity.

“I thought the first half we played a little bit like a testimonial, a little bit like ‘ Look at us, we are a great team, we’ve qualified for Germany’.

“And that’s not us, it’s not Scotland. We have to play on the front foot, be aggressive and get about the opposition.

I thought we did it much better in the second half, it was a much better performance than the first half.”

And Clarke joked that he couldn’t even enjoy the joyous celebrations at full-time after the late leveller for Norway.

He added: “It was nice at the end – I didn’t smile too much because I was still fuming about the third goal that we conceded because that is just the way I am made up.

“But it’s probably not a night to overanalyse this one.”

And discussing the campaign as a whole, the Hampden boss said: “After the game tonight? I might bypass that a little bit!

“It was a strange game for us, a strange atmosphere, international game 3-3 you don’t get too many of them.

“Overall, on the group and the performance of the lads, it’s fantastic. To qualify in the manner we did. The draw was favourable to us with the three home games to start with but then you have to capitalise on the draw and we managed to do that and put ourselves in a great position and get over the line with two games to spare which turned out to be two difficult games for us.”

Meanwhile, Scotland will be in pot three for the Euro 2024 finals draw next month. Clarke’s side had already guaranteed qualification for the finals ahead of kick-off against Norway but there was potential to enter pots one, two, or three depending on results.

Now, though, it’s official that Scotland will enter pot three for the finals draw.