Scotland should take encouragement from leaving Cristiano Ronaldo in a huff and aim high in their Nations League finale, according to assistant coach John Carver.
Steve Clarke’s side suffered last-gasp disappointment in their opening three games in section A1 before holding Portugal to a goalless draw last time out.
Ronaldo gesticulated his displeasure after the final whistle and the Hampden crowd lapped up his tantrum.
Now Carver wants the team to go one better at home against Croatia on Friday and give the Tartan Army something more positive to cheer.
“I think it’s a big lift,” he said. “I think you’ve seen the reaction of the fans at the end of the game. Normally, when you draw a game, people are disappointed.
“But I think it was the manner in which we performed and how we did it. If you think about it, we were close to actually getting something in Croatia as well. And that was a huge disappointment.
“But we used the same starting XI against Portugal, and I love it when we disappoint one of the world’s best footballers. He’s coming off in a huff because he’s frustrated. He’s frustrated because he didn’t score and we kept a clean sheet. It’s always a good thing.”
Scotland sit bottom of their group but wins against Croatia and Poland could potentially put them up to second, avoiding relegation or a relegation play-off, depending on other results.
Carver said: “We’re in a position where we’ve got two games to go and it’s still all to play for, which is a good thing. I think we can be encouraged from the performances. We should be sitting here with more points.
“So, I think there’s a confidence within the group. We’ve got two games to go, it’s all to play for, and I think there’s an outside chance if results went our way and we, for example, won both games, we might have a chance of finishing second.
“What we’ve done over the years is we’ve worked hard to get ourselves into this position, which is fantastic. And we don’t want to disappoint by coming out of that top group because you only benefit from playing against the best teams, the best players.
“And our young players will develop. We’ve got quite a few young players who have come through from the under-21s and they’re gaining massive experience for the future.”
