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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Verri

Scott McTominay slams Georgia players for 'crying like babies' as Scotland secure late draw

Scott McTominay hit out at the Georgia players for "crying like babies" after Scotland battled to secure a draw in the closing stages in Tbilisi.

Steve Clarke's side had already booked their place at Euro 2024 next summer with two games to spare, but knew they likely needed to beat Georgia to maintain any faint hope of topping Group A above Spain.

Instead they had to twice come from behind just to earn a point, as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia put the hosts on front on two occasions. McTominay cancelled the first strike out, with his seventh goal of the qualifying campaign, before Lawrence Shankland netted an equaliser for Scotland in stoppage-time.

It is now four matches without a win for Scotland, after a run of defeats to England, Spain and France, but it was not the result that proved most frustrating for McTominay.

The Manchester United player was furious with the time wasting and play-acting from Georgia, admitting it was hard for Scotland to keep their cool in the circumstances.

"Tonight, the way they were acting on the pitch, I thought it was a disgrace," McTominay told Viaplay Sports.

"In terms of provoking the referee and us as players as well, it's not the way that it should go. Anyway, that's football and that's just sometimes the way it goes. We have to keep our heads, but it's difficult."

He continued: "They should do something about pretending they're injured when they're not and stuff like that. Rolling around crying like babies all afternoon, it's not football."

Scotland boss Clarke referenced those "shenanigans" as he reflected on the match, as he enjoyed the fact his side benefitted from time added on as a result of Georgia's antics.

“You have to show you can control yourselves and don’t get involved," he said.

"You can’t react to any of the shenanigans. And we just kept going, plugging all the way to the end, knowing that there was going to be extra time added on for time wasting. And it was nice to get the goal in injury time."

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