John McGinn has hit back at claims Scotland are divers but made no apology for time wasting as he insisted Steve Clarke’s men had to use every trick in the book to get their famous win over Spain at Hampden.
The Aston Villa midfield dynamo also agreed that the grass was long as he addressed the long list of excuses from the sulking Spaniards in the aftermath of Tuesday’s sensational 2-0 Euro 2024 qualifying in Glasgow.
Manchester City man and national team skipper Rodri kicked off the visitors’ moans immediately after full time with a petulant post match TV interview when he criticised the tactics of Clarke’s men, accusing them of falling over to run down the clock after Scott McTominay’s brace had the home side 2-0 up early in the second half.
McGinn pleaded guilty to that charge and the state of the much-maligned National Stadium surface but not simulation as he also questioned whether Luis de la Fuente showed Scotland a lack of respect in making eight changes from his side that started the win over Norway days earlier.
The 28-year-old, who scored in Scotland’s win over Cyprus in the first half of the double header, told Sky Sports: “I did see the comments. I don’t really have a huge amount of reaction. I’m not sure that falling over is something that could be levelled at us. Wasting time, absolutely. If anyone expects us to go into a head to head tika-taka battle for 90 minutes against Spain and expect us to come away with three points then there’s absolutely no chance.
“So everyone needs to get a bit of realism and realise we need to find a way to beat Spain and we managed to do it. The grass is a bit long, the pitch was a bit sticky but it’s Scotland - not Spain. That’s the benefits of being the home team. We handled the game well, maturely. Did we waste time a bit? Absolutely, because we were winning from an early point. We were rolling about? No, we were the same as the Spain players so I don’t really agree with that but Spain are a top team and I’m sure they will be back.”
On the possibility of complacency from the former world champions, McGinn said: “We had a lot of belief. We obviously were a little bit buoyed by the Spain team selection, they made a lot of changes. We didn’t know if that was to freshen it up or because they thought they could sweep us aside with any team. We started well and got the first goal and our shape was excellent. They couldn’t really break us down which was good so it was a special, special night at Hampden and one I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
“No matter what team I’ve played for, as soon as the opposition team is announced it goes on the board. And when you work each day preparing to play a team and it’s almost completely different then it’s weird. It’s difficult, probably for coaches as well to put messages across. It was surprising to see so many changes. It’s a new manager so you can’t predict what he’s going to do but we didn’t expect eight changes and there were a lot of new faces so we knew we had to start fast and make them feel uncomfortable and thankfully we managed to do that.”
Villa - managed by a Spaniard in Unai Emery - are preparing to face Chelsea on Saturday tea-time and McGinn said: “It was a very successful international break for it. It was a really good start to the campaign, something Scotland haven’t experienced for a long time. It was a couple of great days and nights at Hampden and a lot of the Scottish players will be going back to their clubs with a spring in their step and full of confidence.”
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