STEVE Clarke last night praised the nerve of his Scotland players in their epic penalty shoot-out victory over Israel in their Euro 2020 play-off semi-final win over Israel.
The national team had to go to spot kicks to defeat their opponents after the nerve-wracking match had finished 0-0 at the end of 120 minutes at Hampden.
But John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Scott McTominay, Lawrence Shankland and Kenny McLean all buried their attempts to ensure the country triumphed 5-3.
Scotland now take on Serbia, who edged out Norway 2-1 after extra-time in Oslo, in the final in Belgrade next month.
Clarke, who lost six members of his squad in the build-up to the Israel game, believes his charges have the mental strength to cope with the occasion.
“It was a tight, tense nervous affair which it was always going to be," he said. "The previous game showed there wasn’t a lot between the two teams.
“But I thought we had better control defensively than we had in the last game and we created the best chances in the game, although there weren’t very many.
“We had touched on it every day in training after the last session, every player that trained hit a penalty. Fortunately our goalkeeper had a lot of practise at saving them.
“The standard of penalties in training was good, but obviously there’s no correlation between that and taking one in a really tense situation like tonight. But I was delighted to see them all hit the back of the net."
Clarke added: “The nerve they showed was great. We’re talking about big personalities and big characters. But I think they showed that during the game as well.
“There was a lot of pressure on them in that game. It was always going to be tight and tense but the players showed a terrific determination, desire and character to get a result for their country.
“We spoke about putting a smile on everybody’s face. It might not have been a very pretty performance, but it was a performance which showed a little bit of heart.
“This is a group of players who want to be successful and they show that on the pitch.”
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