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Steve Clarke last night urged his Scotland players to travel to Georgia next month and call a halt to their losing run.
After the high of qualification for the Euro 2024 finals on Sunday a 4-1 thrashing to France in Lille made it three defeats on the bounce.
Despite eight changes to the team beaten by Spain last week Billy Gilmour’s first international goal got a much-changed Scotland side off to a dream start.
Beaten by England, then Spain, Clarke insists he will never be satisfied with losing games. And, with two qualification games still to play in Group A, he wants his side to go to Tbilisi next month and get back to winning ways.
Steve Clarke’s side fell to a 4-1 defeat to France in Lille after securing qualification from the Euros at the weekend
Billy Gilmour scored his first goal for Scotland before the hosts scored four to secure victory
‘We can take the memory of qualification but we lost two games in the camp.
‘We don’t like losing. I don’t want them to be comfortable losing or happy losing, We spoke about that after the game, it is important we set our standards higher than that.
‘We do not want to lose, we have lost three in a row now. I have asked them to make sure when we go to Georgia that we stop this run.
‘We played a good team tonight. A tram team that is a big threat. Especially one versus one, they can beat players and open things up.
‘I thought we started the game really well. The first 15 minutes was good.
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‘We got ourselves in front then to concede from a corner was disappointing because we know France can score from open play so you try not to give goals away from set plays. The first two involved set plays or the second phase from set plays.
‘The third one, I have to say I don’t think VAR should have got involved in the penalty decision. It was soft and when the referee goes there, he has to be a little bit stronger to stick with his original decision. Both players were at it, which is normal in the box. It felt like a poor decision and that takes the game away from us a little bit.
‘Second half was OK, we passed the ball well, but every time France go forward their pace, power and quality means they are always a threat.’
Clarke handed a Scotland debut to Motherwell keeper Liam Kelly and drafted Bologna’s Lewis Ferguson into midfield.
Captain Kylian Mbappe was on target, while Benjamin Pavard was at the double and Kingsley Coman netted the fourth
Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly conceded four goals on his senior debut for Scotland
Coming up against a strong world class French starting eleven the defeat was a sobering reality check after the jubilation over reaching Germany next summer.
‘I am happy with my team selection.
‘Lots to learn, lots for us to improve. We know we are not at that level yet. It is a level we strive to get to and the harder we strive to get there, the better team we will be.
‘I have to be honest, tonight I am not looking beyond next month because that is two competitive games and we want to stop the run of losing. We want to finish on the sane points as Spain so the target next month is to take six points and finish with 21 in the group, which would make it a really good campaign. That is what we want to do.’
