CELTIC playmaker David Turnbull last night admitted he was disappointed that Scotland had failed to record a morale-boosting victory over the Netherlands ahead of the Euro 2020 finals on his international debut.
Turnbull was selected to start the friendly match against the Dutch in the Estadio Algarve after seven members of the national squad – Che Adams, Grant Hanley, John Fleck, David Marshall, John McGinn, Stephen O’Donnell and Nathan Patterson – were ruled out by a positive Covid-19 test.
The 21-year-old, who was named PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year last month as the result of his outstanding displays for the Parkhead club in the 2020/21 campaign, performed maturely in Portugal.
But the former Motherwell man, who joined the Glasgow giants in a record £3.25m transfer back in August, was disappointed that Frank De Boer’s side equalised in the 89th minute after he had been replaced by Billy Gilmour of Chelsea.
He acknowledged that Memphis Depay, who had cancelled out Jack Hendry’s opener in the first-half, had levelled with a free-kick of the highest quality, but he felt that referee Vitor Ferreira or Portugal should not have awarded the set piece in the first place.
“We conceded a great free-kick at the end and there is not much you can do about that,” said Turnbull. “I am not sure if it was a foul or not. But, yeah, I felt we were hard done by.
Asked about his first taste of international football, he added: “I really enjoyed it. It is obviously a great achievement to finally get it under my belt. I did what I could to contribute.
“It is just about tempo and moving the ball quicker. If you made a mistake with the ball you more or less got punished most time. But I tried to do my best and I felt I did that.”
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