John McGinn reckons taking out Norway was even bigger than the sinking of Spain.
The win over Rodri and Co at Hampden was massive but the midfielder thinks that coming out on top in Oslo eclipsed that. He points to the fact that the victory was away from home and was very much a team effort, with the subs coming on and playing a major part in the win through late goals from Lyndon Dykes and Kenny McLean. It leaves Scotland well clear on top of Group A and a home win against Georgia tomorrow could leave them sitting pretty at the halfway point of this Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
McGinn claimed: “It’s definitely bigger in terms of the group. The group came up on the big screens when they were 1-0 up and at that point it was wide open, so for us to turn that around the way we did is huge. But we need to back it up with another big result against Georgia. Hampden will be bouncing and we need to be right up for it. Georgia are a decent team and their win on Saturday night takes them above Norway, so they’re not going to be easy.”
The Aston Villa star praised the substitutions Steve Clarke made for turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win, adding: “We need to give a big shout-out to the substitutes, because they were phenomenal.
“Before then, it was a really poor performance from us on the ball, on as hot a night as I can ever remember playing in. We went behind and had to respond but it wasn’t really happening until Kenny, Billy and Stu all came on and changed the game. Kenny’s so under-rated and there was never any doubt he was going to stick it away when the ball came to him.
“It was a really good goal. I don’t know how big Scott McTominay saw me from out on the right, but he pinged a great ball, Dykesy blocked off their defender and to be honest I was going to have a shout before I saw Dyksey out of the corner of my eye and decided to square it instead.
“The big man laid it off lovely, and Kenny’s run was perfect, and it couldn’t have been a better end to the night. for us.”
Norway had gone ahead though Erling Haaland and McGinn claimed their coach Stale Solbakken shot himself in the foot by substituting his star man when they were still 1-0 up. McGinn explained: “It gave us a boost to see one of the best players in the world being taken off, because although they have good players on the bench there’s no one else as good as him. When it went to one each and they needed to chase the win again, him not being on the pitch really helped us.”
Clarke got his squad together for a training camp in Spain before they travelled to Norway and McGinn reckons it paid dividends and helped the Scots all but kill off Norway’s lingering Euro 2024 hopes. Now he wants to sign off what has been a long season with one more Scotland win and leave the national team sitting pretty in the race for Germany.
The former Hibs and St Mirren midfielder said: “We need to focus on Tuesday night, because there’s no point letting what we’ve achieved here go to waste.
“Taking us away last week turned out to be a great idea, because rather than resting we were training and I think what we managed to do in the last 15 to 20 minutes in Norway shows the benefits of doing that.
“Keeping fit rather than taking a break was absolutely what we needed – especially when this game was played in these conditions.
“It was so incredibly hot and it took a lot out of you. You needed to be fit enough to keep going right to the end the way we did.”
