Steve Clarke is delighted with Scotland’s “strong begin” to World Cup qualifying after they continued their unbeaten begin with a 2-0 win over Belarus.
Scotland opened their qualifying marketing campaign with a hard-earned 0-0 draw with Denmark earlier than following that up with one other morale-boosting consequence.
Behind closed doorways on the ZTE-Enviornment in Hungary, Scotland took the lead on the finish of the primary half, with Scott McTominay establishing Che Adams for a close to end within the forty third minute.
Billy Gilmour had struck the woodwork simply moments earlier than, and was additionally denied a aim within the second half as his header throughout aim hit Zakhar Volkov and flew into the online 65 minutes in.
The win leaves Scotland second in Group C on aim distinction, boosting their hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
And Clarke was most happy with a second consecutive clear sheet for his aspect, although he famous Scotland nonetheless have work to do.
“It was a troublesome evening. I anticipated the response Belarus gave,” he instructed BBC Scotland. “They began huge guys and stuffed the center of the park.
“We stored prodding, doing what we wished to do. The message was simply to remain affected person, and we managed to try this.
“It’s an excellent begin, a strong begin. 4 factors won’t ever qualify you for something. It’s good to go residence with a smile in your face, however I’m already interested by subsequent month.
“Billy and Ben [Gannon-Doak] are two gamers who excite the general public. My job is to select a group to win the sport. Each of them did very nicely.
“Clear sheets are what now we have to construct our marketing campaign on.”
Scotland have now misplaced simply one in all their final 18 World Cup qualifiers (W12 D5), and haven’t stored a clear sheet in every of their final 5 such qualifiers.
They put Belarus beneath stress on the different finish as nicely, although, accumulating 1.98 anticipated objectives (xG) from their 14 pictures, and restricted Belarus to only 0.33 xG.
Gilmour famous that there are positives to take from Scotland’s September camp and is hopeful they will hold constructing on that in October.
“Exhausting evening with out the followers, however the entire group did nicely,” Gilmour instructed BBC Scotland.
“It’s good to play soccer – nobody desires to sit down on the bench, however we’ve obtained an excellent squad right here.
“Even towards Denmark, I believed we performed very well. Two good performances this camp, and hopefully the following one’s the identical.
“We’re all in good spirits. We knew how essential it was to start out nicely, and we’ve achieved that.”
