Craig Gordon urges Scotland to come back fighting after painful Croatia loss

Craig Gordon insists Scotland can take plenty of positives into the Portugal game on Tuesday following their luckless 2-1 Nations League defeat to Croatia in Zagreb.

The 41-year-old goalkeeper made his first start for his country in around two years after being recalled into the squad by Steve Clarke, and he watched Ryan Christie put the visitors ahead in the 33rd minute before Croatia striker Igor Matanovic levelled three minutes later.

Gordon made a fine save from Borna Sosa in the 70th minute only for Andrej Kramaric to head in the loose ball from close range, while, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Scotland had the ball in the net with substitute Che Adams involved but VAR confirmed it was offside.

The Scots have lost all three League A Group 1 games by one goal and have won only one game in 15 ahead of the visit of the Portuguese, but Gordon saw enough on his return to make him feel the corner will be turned soon.

The Hearts keeper said: “We are disappointed because we put in a performance that we thought was worthy of taking something from the game. We had good chances but just didn’t take them tonight.

“That seems to be the story of this Nations League but we have another game to look forward to now, we have another chance to get some points on the board and we have to focus on that.

“We feel as if we are playing quite well. That’s the first game I’ve come back into it and I felt like we were in control of the game, so it was a good performance but we haven’t come away with the result.

“We said in there (the dressing room) we need to keep going, keep doing the right things, believing in what we are trying to do.

“I think the fans could see we put everything out there to get the result and just one or two little things didn’t go for us.

“We are not far away. It’s always going to be difficult when you come against pot one teams. You are going to have play really well to get anything from a game, especially an away game.

“We need to stick with the game plan, to stick with each other and come back and show that fight again in the next game.”