June 20 – With pride restored following a 1-1 draw with Switzerland, Steve Clarke said that this is who Scotland are and believes that his team is still alive in the group.
“That was what I expected. That is the way we have been playing as a team over the last three or four years,” said Clarke at a news conference. “It is why we are here at a major tournament.”
“This is how we play, how we work.”
“We’ve shown that as well as the aggression and the fight and the dirty side of the game, if you like, we can play. They ran themselves into the ground against a very good side.”
Scotland demonstrated a different mentality from their 5-1 curtain raiser defeat to Germany and took the game by the scruff of the neck, pressing high.
They were rewarded with an early lead following a well-executed counter, but Xherdan Shaqiri pegged Clarke’s men back, pouncing on a wayward pass by Anthony Ralston. Even so, Scotland pushed for a winner in the second half and held on to a pivotal point.
“The players knew what they needed to do. I thought it was a good team performance against a good opponent,” said Clarke. “It was a good reaction to a disappointing night and we are still alive in the tournament.”
Clarke and Scotland will go into their final group game against Hungary with the knowledge that a victory will give them every chance to progress to the knockout phase of a major tournament for the very first time.
Germany have already qualified following their win against Hungary and Switzerland, on four points, enjoy a favourable position to finish second in the group. The four best third-placed teams will also advance to the round of 16.
“Look, the reality is when the draw was made and we were drawn against the host nation in the opening game, you’re looking at the second two games in the group and thinking maybe that’s where the points are going to come from,” said Clarke.
“That’s the way it’s turned out. Everybody was trying to over-hype the fact that we had to get something from this game tonight. But the reality was, even if we had played well against Germany, we probably would have been in a similar position.”
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