Scotland knew Georgia were 'a bit rattled' after abandonment bid fell short

Goalscorer Scott McTominay says Scotland's players knew their opponents were “rattled” by the conditions around their Euro 2024 qualifying match with Georgia at Hampden Park.

The game was halted in the aftermath of Callum McGregor’s early opener after the referee decided the national stadium surface wasn’t playable due to excess water.

There then followed a 99-minute delay where the restart time was pushed back on several occasions. This included the visitors refusing to come back out after Istvan Vad deemed the game could go ahead, which led to one final inspection before both teams retook to the surface.

Scotland controlled the rest of the half before McTominay added a second shortly after the half-time break en route to a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win.

Scott McTominay celebrates putting Scotland 2-0 ahead against Georgia at Hampden Park. Picture: SNS

“The first few minutes, every player was saying ‘we don’t want to play on a pitch like this’, but then we scored and they didn’t want to play it,” the Manchester United player told Viaplay.

“Credit to the boys, we kept warm in there and kept our heads. They were a bit rattled because they didn’t want to play. We kept our concentration, kept to the gameplan and we did well.

“We wanted to play. We came here to play tonight. We didn’t want to come here tomorrow, or tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night. We wanted to play now.

“We had to keep telling ourselves that the pitch is going to get cleared and the game is going to go ahead, and that’s what ended up happening.”

The victory means Scotland have 12 points from 12 to begin their group and would likely just need one more victory from their remaining four games to make it to Germany 2024.

McTominay, however, insists the focus is on the next fixture as the players refuse to get carried away.

“It’s the same after winning in Oslo,” he said. “We knew we had to come back here and take care of business. And it’ll be the same mindset in the next camp and the one after that.

“The job’s not done. We will keep going until we’ve secured qualification for Germany. We’ve got a great group of boys, maybe the best I’ve seen in terms of all being together and fighting for each other.”

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