McLeish confident of Scots Euro chances

Thanks to a brilliant 3-2 win over Israel at Hampden Park on Tuesday, Scotland managed to secure Nations League qualification, and a Euro 2020 play off spot in the process. 

Manager Alex McLeish believes that, given the added safety net, his side have what it takes to secure automatic qualification for the tournament in two years time.

He spoke to the media after the Israel triumph, claiming: "'We want to qualify from the group. We have got to target that. We cannot just rely on this play-off thing. We want to qualify from the group now the players have got a wee bit of momentum."

In spite of a spate of absentees from his recent squads, McLeish is confident that the side's qualification will spur on the casualties to recuperate in time to feature in the qualifiers in the new year. 

The manager added: "You can't preclude that you will lose players, and lose some of your good ones, at certain moments. That can obviously be difficult. It can be hard to keep the momentum and keep winning. But we believe the way we have come through these two games, everybody will be desperate to come back and play for Scotland."

By finishing top of their Nations League group, Scotland have avoided a potential 'group of death' in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, as they will remain as third seeds for next week's draw in Dublin.