CALLUM MCGREGOR has told his Scotland teammates that they have to stay humble and continue to improve if they want to qualify for tournaments on a regular basis.
The Scots were beaten by Israel by a single goal to nil last night as they failed to follow up their qualification for Euro 2020 by winning promotion in the Nations League.
McGregor was maintaining a sense of perspective after the loss in Tel Aviv, with Steve Clarke’s side completing their main objective from this international break.
But the Celtic midfielder is hoping that Scotland can learn the lessons from the week to make sure that the nation can consistently reach major tournaments.
“[This week]’s been incredible,” McGregor said. “I’ve had a lot of success at club level, but to have that success at international level…
“That is the pinnacle of a player’s career, to go and play in major tournaments and get your country there, so it’s been a brilliant week in terms of the success we’ve had.
“But we need to stay humble and continue to improve. We want to be a side that when we come together, we can qualify for tournaments on a regular basis.
“We were in a great position to give ourselves a play-off for the World Cup, and to win tonight would have been a great way to finish the camp.
“It’s a disappointing result, but I think when you look at the performance to win the play-off final to get us to the Euros, then you have to look at that in a positive light as well.
“We learned a lot this week – good and bad – and we will take that back with us for when we come together in March.
“We have to look at where we have come in a short space of time. We’ve done well, we’ve qualified for the Euros, so we put that to one side.
“But if we are going to keep progressing then we have to take our chances when we get them, because as you see at this level, they can get a counter-attack and you can quite easily lose the game.
“That’s the next step for us in our development, to take our chances.”
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