Ryan Porteous believes the Tartan Army have every right to be excited about Scotland’s Euro 2024 prospects but insists the squad must remain focused.
The 24-year-old Watford centre-back scored his first international goal in the assured 3-0 win over Cyprus in Larnaca on Friday night as Steve Clarke’s side made it five Group A qualifying wins from their first five fixtures.
The close-range strike was sandwiched in between Scott McTominay’s sixth goal in five games and a delightful finish from midfielder John McGinn – his 17th for Scotland – with the several thousand travelling fans singing about reaching Germany next summer.
Scotland take on England in a special 150th anniversary heritage match at Hampden Park on Tuesday night and if Norway and Georgia draw their qualifier in Oslo the same evening then the Scots will have reached their second successive European Championship – with games against Spain, Georgia and Norway still to come to finish the job if required.
Porteous said: “We have always been dreaming about getting there, from before the games started.
“The fans have every right to be excited. There’s probably been a lot of times before with Scotland teams when they’ve not been.
“They can look forward and get carried away but we as a group have to stay level-headed because we have a big game on Tuesday and a lot of big games coming up.”
Clarke insisted his favourite moment of the night at the AEK Arena was when Porteous threw himself in stoppage time to block a Cyprus shot and keep a clean sheet.
The former Hibernian defender was also pleased with keeping the home side out but enjoyed his first goal in dark blue.
“The manager said my tackle was better than my goal,” he said.
“It was a dream come true to get my goal.
“It fell to me nicely and I have seen them missed a lot of time but luckily enough it went in. I wasn’t going to miss that opportunity for my first Scotland goal. It was a brilliant feeling.
“I should probably have got one against Georgia with my header.
“Austin McPhee (coach) was at me to get one against Cyprus and luckily enough I did.
“The manager was on at us at half-time to keep a clean sheet.
“He said that was most important thing, that’s what he wanted because you win the game after that.
“It is a great group to be involved in and long may it continue.”
McGinn believes the victory was “a huge three points” for Scotland but he also urged caution.
He said: “It is hard to keep a lid on it but we are going to have to. Mathematically we are not there yet.
“Obviously there’s a game on Tuesday which could decide whether they qualify or not.
“And then if Norway or Georgia win then we go to Spain (in the next qualifier) so as much as we are extremely excited, we’ve put ourselves in a great position, we are not quite there yet.
“We are so, so close, but we are not there yet.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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