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Scotland skipper Andy Robertson apologises for mistake v England – but says national team are still in ‘very good moment’

The Scots lost 3-1 to the Auld Enemy in their Hampden friendly on Tuesday, but are on the cusp of Euro 2024 qualification.

Scotland's Andy Robertson gives the fans a thumbs up during the 150th Anniversary Heritage Match between Scotland and England at Hampden Park, on September 12, 2023. Image: SNS.
Scotland's Andy Robertson gives the fans a thumbs up during the 150th Anniversary Heritage Match between Scotland and England at Hampden Park, on September 12, 2023. Image: SNS.

Scotland captain Andy Robertson apologised to his team-mates for his part in England’s second goal in Tuesday’s 3-1 Hampden defeat.

However, the skipper insists the national team are still “in a very good moment”.

Robertson scuffed a clearance from inside the Scots’ area in the build-up to man of the match Jude Bellingham’s finish to make it 2-0 to England in the first half.

The goal, just a few minutes after Phil Foden’s opener for the visitors, left the Dark Blues with a mountain to climb in the second period of the friendly celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first meeting between the fierce rivals.

After the break, a Robertson cross was turned home by England sub Harry Maguire to give the home side hope, but Bellingham was in full flow as the game wore on and teed up his captain Harry Kane to seal victory for the Auld Enemy.

Assessing Scotland’s performance against their fierce historic rivals, Robertson said: “It was a wee bit of a slow start and we let them settle in a little bit more than we wanted to do. We let them control the possession, which didn’t quite bring the fans with us like you have to do on these nights.

“The mistakes are there. The first goal we’d kind of worked on and we know they’re dangerous from throw-ins. We had to get pressure on the ball quicker as they’ve got good players who can punish you.

“The second goal was completely my fault – I’ll take that one. It was just one of those mistakes you can’t quite put your finger on, which are very rare, but in these big games they cost you.

Scotland’s Andy Robertson plays the ball across the box for England’s Jude Bellingham to score. Image: SNS.

“I’ve took that one on the chin, apologised to the boys, manager and everyone else.

“The second half was better, I thought we put them under pressure and forced into mistakes before the goal.

“The goal’s a good one, gets you back into the game and the crowd are up. (We had)a  couple of chances after that.

“But you’re coming up against a team who’ve got a prolific number nine, we’ve gave him a half-space and unfortunately he took it and that took the wind out of the whole stadium.”

Although bragging rights over Gareth Southgate’s England would have been a great achievement for Steve Clarke’s Scots during the international break, they had already hit their main target – three Euro 2024 qualifying points in Cyprus on Friday.

With five wins from five, the Dark Blues could have become the first team to make it through qualifying for next summer’s finals – had group rivals Norway failed to beat Georgia at the same time as Robertson and his team-mates were playing the English.

As things were, the Norwegians narrowly won in Oslo, but Scotland will qualify if they beat Spain away from home in the next camp in October, having already defeated them in Glasgow.

It is an international break which also features a friendly with more European big-hitters in World Cup finalists France.

Robertson thinks it is important to remember the England game was a friendly, and how far the national team have come under Clarke – who has them on a run of 11 straight qualifier victories.

The Liverpool left-back added: “We’re still on a journey. I know fans and that have got carried away and all that, but we know we’re not the finished article. Tonight proved we’ve still got a lot of improving to do.

“But we’ve also got to look back at how far we’ve come. We’ve won five out of five in a campaign. And I don’t think we’d have said three or four years ago that was possible.

“We’re still in a very good moment and the country should still feel that.

“The main thing this week was the three points in Cyprus, and we never spoke about the England game until the Cyprus game was out the way.

“I wouldn’t have swapped dropping points in Cyprus to beat England, it’s as simple as that.

“We want to be competing in major tournaments and that’s the most important thing.

“We’ve got Spain and France next who are two of the top teams in the world.

“And we’ve shown in the past we can compete against these teams.”

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