Scotland narrowing gap with top teams, says assistant coach John Carver
“We should sit here with more points so we have confidence in the group. If the results go in our favor, for example, and we win two games, we might have a chance of finishing second.”
Carver believes Scotland were “close to getting something in Croatia” before losing 2-1 in Croatia, and despite facing what he considers a “top team”, he is not approaching the game “with fear”.
“I think we’re closing the gap on these teams and it showed with the tight results,” he said. “But now we need to go one step further.
“It’s all good to get a good performance and draw with Portugal, but now it’s time to win. Usually at this time of year we’ve been in good form in the past and the important thing is what we get from the game Something for the first game and see where we go.”
Carver said his experience playing at the top level of the National League showed how exploiting limited opportunities or preventing them could be the difference between victory and defeat.
With that in mind, Che Adams’ injury absence is “a blow” given his confident start in Turin, Italy.
However, Carver stressed: “With Jack Hendry coming back, John McGinn coming back and Stuart Armstrong coming back, when you think about the performance we’ve had over the last two training camps, I think it shows The competitiveness of the team.
“We’ve got a lot of different faces and they’re all doing really well – so the players who have been with us for a long time and have made more appearances can be encouraging. So it’s very refreshing.”
