Lewis Morgan knows out-of-form Scotland can compete against ‘top, top teams’

Lewis Morgan claims Scotland’s goalless draw against Portugal showed again that they can mix it with the best teams in Europe.

The League A Group 1 fixture at Hampden Park on Tuesday night came after three Nations League defeats out of three and on the back of a run of one win in 15 games.

The Scots defended resolutely against the best efforts of Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of the talented Portuguese side, albeit Steve Clarke’s men remain bottom of the section ahead of the final double-header next month against Croatia and Poland.

As he appraised the campaign so far, the New York Red Bulls attacker, who came off the bench in the second half, focused on the positives.

Morgan said: “When you look at all the games, of course if they haven’t gone our way results-wise, I think with performances, we’ve stood up in every single game and played positive football.

“We have created chances in every game and we feel a little bit aggrieved to only have one point.

“Top, top teams and we’ve definitely shown that we can compete at this level and we’ve got to take confidence from that.

“I think we did a lot of things well, we created chances going forward and we defended the box very well.

“We limited them to crosses from outside areas and I think everyone stood up in the box and made sure that we were getting first contacts on all their crosses.

“The boys showed a resilience and to the group’s credit that is what has got us into League A. There’s no easy games so it’s a good result. A well-earned point, obviously, against a top side.

“The manager reiterated before the game that there’s no shortcuts to beating a pot-one team or taking points off a pot-one team. And we’ve done that. The boys were excellent.”