SCOTLAND hero John McGinn says the national side are determined to avenge their abject defeat to the Republic of Ireland in the summer, and they will use the pain of that chastening evening in Dublin as motivation to put the Irish side to the sword at Hampden tomorrow night.
McGinn was part of the team that were humiliated by Stephen Kenny’s outfit in the only defeat of their Nations League campaign so far, when a beleaguered Scottish side went down by three goals to nil at the Aviva Stadium.
Fresh from a stunning performance to defeat Ukraine by that same scoreline at Hampden on Wednesday night though, McGinn says that Steve Clarke’s men are now eying revenge at the national stadium to cement their advantage at the top of Group E.
“That night certainly hurts,” McGinn said.
“A lot of the summer games hurt us and probably put a little bit more doubt in the back of our heads and the back of everyone’s heads about where we were progressing.
“But the manager was first class on Sunday night. He got us in, even though the game was Wednesday. He showed us clips from the summer and said ‘why have we got away from doing x, y and z?’ Which was right.
“The things that had made us brilliant as a team, the thing that got us to the Euros, the thing that got us to second in the World Cup group was first and foremost being horrible to beat, winning every second ball.
“That night in Ireland epitomised everything that was going wrong in the summer so we certainly have to try and avenge that on Saturday.
“It’s not a case of just turning up just because we beat Ukraine at home. We’re aware of that.
“We need to put in the same performance as the other night and play the complete opposite way to we did in Dublin.”
*McDonald’s Fun Football ambassador John McGinn was speaking at one of 20 new locations opening this Autumn. Fun Football is the UK’s largest free grassroots football participation programme and will give one million children access to coaching over the next four years. Sign up to attend a session near you at mcdonalds.co.uk/football
