Craig Gordon insists Scotland now must give attention to a very good begin to their Nations League marketing campaign following their 2022 World Cup disappointment.
Ukraine’s 3-1 win over Steve Clarke’s facet within the play-off semi-final at Hampden Park on Wednesday night time ended the Scots hopes of attending to Qatar later this yr.
It was Scotland’s first defeat in 9 video games however they don’t have any time to dwell on it, nonetheless, as they start their 2022/23 Nations League marketing campaign with a house sport towards Armenia subsequent Wednesday night time, earlier than away fixtures towards the Republic of Eire and Armenia on June 11 and 14 respectively.
The 39-year-old Gordon, who had a terrific sport towards Ukraine, sidestepped a query about his personal worldwide future and ambitions – “You want to ask the supervisor, he’s the one who picks the crew” – to as an alternative give attention to the go to of the Armenians.
“Simply think about the following sport,” he stated. “That’s how we now have finished it up to now to get so far and we have to return to that.
“We have to attempt to get a very good begin within the Nations League.
“It hurts for everybody, no matter age. All of us wished to be there. We got here up quick. We gave it a very good go within the group to get to the play-off stage and it simply feels that little bit extra disappointing as a result of we didn’t give our greatest efficiency.
“It was disappointing for it to finish that approach. It wasn’t our greatest efficiency after we actually wanted it. We now have no excuses, we have been overwhelmed by the higher crew.”
The previous Celtic and Sunderland keeper couldn’t put his finger on why Scotland took till the second half to get going.
He stated: “You most likely should put that right down to the standard of the Ukraine efficiency.
“They have been excellent, managed the ball properly after which in a while, once they have been attempting to guard their lead, that’s after we got here into it extra.
“We simply have to offer credit score to our opponents.”
Nonetheless, Gordon was not stunned at how sharp the guests got that six of their starters had not performed a aggressive sport this yr after Ukraine’s home soccer was stopped following the invasion by neighbours Russia.
He stated: “That they had been in a coaching camp for weeks and taking part in friendlies. I knew they might come right here sharp and able to play.
“If something, it was one thing we needed to overcome. We knew they might be very prepared for the sport, bodily having deliberate for therefore lengthy for one sport.
“It was as much as us to counteract that and we weren’t in a position to do it.”
Furthermore, Gordon doesn’t suppose the defeat had something to do with the emotion that swirled across the event.
He stated: “No, I don’t. If something it’s the quantity of video games everybody has been taking part in.
“It’s on the finish of a really lengthy, laborious season and we didn’t handle to deal with that they usually did.”
Kaynak: briturkish.com