ANDY Robertson is enjoying a spectacularly successful spell in his football career; he has established himself as a first team regular at Liverpool, helped Jurgen Klopp’s side reach the Champions League final and been named Scotland captain in the past 12 months or so.
Yet, the left back is still haunted by one of the rare failures he has suffered in his annus mirabilis – the lamentable defeat to Israel in Haifa last month.
Robertson, by his own admission, had a bad night in the Nations League game in the Sammy Offer Stadium as the national team slumped to a painful and potentially costly 2-1 loss.
The former Queen’s Park and Dundee United player is determined to atone for his poor display when he squares up to Andi Herzog’s men again this evening.
Victory in the final Group C1 fixture will ensure Alex McLeish’s charges top their section and secure a Euro 2020 play-off place and that is obviously the main incentive to do well. But the skipper has added motivation.
“We want to put it right,” he said. “Any bad night you want to put right. Israel were the team that got one over on us and we will be looking to get them back on home soil. It will be a tough game, but we are looking forward to it.”
A move from a three to a four man defence against Albania in Shkoder on Saturday night helped Scotland produce a vastly-improved display. Robertson, who looked far more comfortable in his favoured left back berth than he had at wing back, is optimistic that they can maintain their high performance level and get the result they need.
“It went as well as could be expected,” he said. “It was enjoyable. Even before Albania went down to 10 men I thought we dominated. If people look at it and think it was because they had a man sent off then I would say we dominated from start to finish and we took our chances - and it was pleasing.
“It’s a great position to be in. But whatever we did in Albania did not change the task in hand. Israel are on six points and we knew we had to beat them at Hampden in any case.
“But now after this result and performance we have the confidence and the belief that we can do it. We need to go out and prove it. Hopefully everyone gets behind us and we get a good backing and hopefully we can put in a similar performance. Albania was a big stepping stone and we will take big confidence from that.
“If someone had told us before the group kicked off that we would get through to the play-offs if we won our last match at home to Israel we would have taken that. We have that chance. Now we have to go out and take it. It will be tough, but we hope to take the confidence from Albania into Tuesday’s match.”
The commitment of the players to their country’s cause had been questioned before kick-off following no fewer than nine withdrawals and Robertson revealed that he had his team mates had used those suggestions to spur themselves on.
“We let other people do the talking about call-offs and form and stuff like that,” he said. “But we used it to our advantage and I felt the lads who stepped in against Albania were different class. It was a really good all-round performance and we can all take confidence from it.
“I was saying before the match that there would be a bit of inexperience about the team but the lads were ready to step up. And that’s how it proved. All the boys were brilliant and they showed their qualities. We believe we are still a good team. Yes, we have had a lot of doubters, but it was time to step up and we did that.”
James Forrest, who was winning his 25th cap against Albania, scored two goals in the second-half. Robertson admitted he was amazed the Celtic winger had never been on target for his country before.
“I could not believe it when he scored,” he said. “He was running away shouting ‘it’s my first goal for my country!’ I couldn’t quite believe it. I didn’t think it was. It was a special day for it to happen on his 25th cap.
“But then he followed that up with another goal. He wanted his hat-trick, but it was not to be. It was a fantastic performance from James, but I felt all the front men were great against Albania.”
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