Steve Clarke watched Scotland almost make a miracle happen here in Warsaw – then revealed he had no idea how close they came to claiming a place in the last eight of the Nations League.
For more than an hour against Poland, after an early opener from John McGinn, Clarke’s side was just one goal away from a second placed finish and a shot at the quarter finals. Even though ultimately Croatia killed the dream by coming from behind to draw with Portugal in Zagreb, Scotland avoided relegation from the top flight in the dying seconds of injury time when skipper Andy Robertson headed home to clinch a 2-1 win.
And that was all the manager was focussed on throughout an emotional rollercoaster of a night. Asked if he realised just how close they had come to nailing down second place in the section Clarke said: “I wasn’t aware of anything that was going on in Zagreb. That wasn’t what we were focussing on. We focussed on coming to a difficult place.
“We knew it would be a very open game because Poland are very, very offensive and we knew we had to be at our best to get a result. We spoke before about coming away to difficult places and getting results in a really difficult environment and we showed again we can do that tonight.”
Clarke had toyed with the idea of leaving Ben Doak out of his starting line-up but opted to stick with the teenage prodigy who followed up his man of the match performance in Friday night’s win over Croatia by setting up McGinn’s quickfire opener just three minutes in. Asked if he was pleased that he gave the youngster another start he responded: “Obviously. He got another assist tonight which is good. I think he tired quite quickly in the second half and I should maybe have taken him off a little bit earlier.
“But he’s a threat. He’s very direct. He gets at defenders. And, having been a full-back myself I know how difficult it is when you’re up against a winger like that.”
The victory means Scotland ended the group phase in third place and will now go into the play-offs in March next year for the chance to stay in League A – while sending the Poles down to the second tier. It also means, after opening up with no points from their opening three games, Clarke and his men stormed over the finishing line with seven points from a possible nine in the second half of the campaign.
And Clarke insists this late run is proof that his team is progressing ahead of the next World Cup qualification campaign. He said: “There have been a lot of good moments over my five and a half years, a lot of good milestones, a lot of good improvements. This is just another step on the journey.
“We want to go to another major tournament and we will now start next year with a tough play-off to try to stay in the highest level of the Nations League. But that will set us up for a tough World Cup campaign and we’ve shown that we’re ready for it.
“I’m really pleased for the players and pleased for my staff as well as the supporters. It’s a good way to end this part of the Nations League campaign. Obviously it will go on a bit longer now that we’ve managed to secure a play-off and we’ll look forward to those games in March.
“It was an open game tonight so we always felt that maybe one more chance would come – maybe not from the source that it came from. It was a fantastic cross from John Souttar who was outstanding defensively along with Grant Hanley. It was a fantastic cross, a great header from the captain and a nice way to finish the game.”
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