Scotland produced a fine performance to beat Albania 4-0 on Saturday and now it’s important they finish the job against Israel tomorrow.
A win at Hampden would see the national team top UEFA Nations League C Group 1 and guarantee a play-off place in the quest to qualify for the European Championships in 2020.
Scotland will take the confidence from Saturday’s win in Shkodër into this home game against Israel.
At the start of the campaign, if we had been told the Dark Blues had to beat Israel at home to top the group, then I think most people would have taken it.
The Nations League is a short competition – with just four games it means any mistakes that are made, such as away to Israel where the Scots lost 2-1, will be highlighted.
But having the same opponents at Hampden with a win enough to finish top – that is a situation Alex McLeish would have accepted and hopefully it is a situation the players make sure they take advantage of.
Reflecting on Saturday’s performance, it was a very encouraging display against Albania from Scotland.
Considering the circumstances the manager has had to contend with – the amount of call-offs and lack of experience on the pitch – you have to class it as a very good performance.
It is also a performance that was required after being beaten by Israel in Haifa.
Saturday’s display was the exact opposite of the performance last time out against Israel.
It was a fine all-round team performance, with some outstanding individual displays as well.
In terms of criticism, the reaction from the result in Haifa was way over the top.
After beating Albania we don’t want to go too far the other way, but it does give you hope going forward.
Scotland are in a position where if they can win tomorrow night they top the Nations League group and have a safety net of a play-off if we don’t qualify through the qualification campaign.
It is looking postive and it has become that out of what was after Israel a very negative situation.
Something else that will please McLeish is the way the team performed, despite the number of players that weren’t available.
With so many potential starters missing, it was great to see Scotland turn in such a good display. Some like Matt Ritchie and Robert Snodgrass asked not to be selected at this time and McLeish also had to deal with a raft of call-offs due to injury.
In my opinion, if your nation calls you answer that call – but everyone is different and has different views.
Only a small minority of the call-offs were players asking not to be involved – the rest were injuries, let’s not forget that.
But unless you have a valid reason for not wanting to be selected, I don’t think you should be able to pick and choose when you want to play for Scotland.
It is disrespectful to the rest of the squad – but the statement made with this performance against Albania will give McLeish comfort that he can manage perfectly well without those who don’t want to be involved.
Hopefully we can see another strong performance tomorrow by the Scots against Israel at Hampden which can get them to the top of group C1 and secure a play-off spot.
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