Scotland assistant coach John Carver admits getting another win over Spain would be all the sweeter given the “disrespectful” comments some of their opponents made in the wake of their Hampden defeat.
Carver was “agitated” by criticism from the likes of Manchester City midfielder Rodri after Scotland beat Spain 2-0 in March.
But the former Newcastle interim manager believes his players will not be distracted by the issue ahead of Thursday’s return fixture in Seville, in which Scotland can qualify for Euro 2024.
Spain captain Rodri claimed the way Scotland played was “rubbish” as he accused them of wasting time, provoking his team-mates and falling over, while debutant David Garcia argued the Hampden grass was too long.
Carver said: “I have got to be honest, I didn’t like it. I felt it was disrespectful. But it was their prerogative to say whatever they wanted to say. Whether they used that as an excuse, I don’t know.
“As far I was concerned, it agitated me and I’m sure it would have got to some of the players.
“But there’s a long time gone since then and it’s about being professional and having a clear head going into this game. So I don’t think it will be a distraction.
“Any win is sweet and you celebrate it for sure, but after what they said it would be nice to win.”
Spain have scored 16 goals in their subsequent three qualifiers and will be out to surpass Scotland’s 2-0 win to give themselves the best chance of topping the group.
Carver added: “I think they will be out to prove a point. A lot has changed since then, they had just brought in a new manager, they had changed quite a bit of the team.
“They are now more settled and have had a couple of great results and scored some goals.
“It’s a different type of game. They will have one eye on what happened at Hampden when we beat them, but they are professionals like we are and their minds will be on this game.”
Scotland have won all five of their Euro 2024 qualifiers and a point on Thursday would be enough to seal a place in next summer’s finals in Germany, while victory would secure top spot in the group.
Even defeat could lead to qualification if Norway fail to beat Cyprus at the same time, or fail to beat Spain three days later in Oslo.
Carver is just focused on getting as many points as possible rather than thinking about qualification.
“It would be great, but to be honest I am not even thinking about that,” he said. “We are in a great position, we still have three games left in this group. I want to get as many points as we can and keep this run going.
“You can say a point would be good enough, but I want to get nine points and, if not nine points, then seven points.
“That’s the attitude we have got to have because you know what it’s like going into tournaments – if you eventually get there you want to go into it with confidence.”
Carver confirmed manager Steve Clarke was still considering whether to switch to a back four following Kieran Tierney’s hamstring injury.
“We have had many, many hours of discussions on the telephone and continued that on Sunday,” he said. “It’s something we are definitely thinking about, but I am not going to give too much away.”
Scotland have lost Ryan Jack after the midfielder missed Rangers’ last two matches with injury, with nobody called up in his place.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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