John McGinn: Scotland to give ‘absolutely everything’ in bid for World Cup dream

Midfielder John McGinn vowed Scotland would give “absolutely everything” to realise their World Cup dream on Tuesday after emerging from a chaotic 90-plus minutes in Greece with a shot at glory.

Steve Clarke’s side needed some heroics from goalkeeper Craig Gordon to keep them in the game in Piraeus – in the 42-year-old’s first match in six months – but still ended up three goals down before launching a fightback.

They fell just short in a 3-2 defeat but McGinn and his team-mates discovered Group C leaders Denmark were drawing 2-2 at home to bottom side Belarus at the final whistle.

They now have the chance to leapfrog the Danes and avoid the play-offs when they host the top seeds at Hampden in the deciding group game.

“We have had so many highs and lows as a group and what this group gives is absolutely everything,” the Aston Villa captain told the PA news agency.

“We never give up. We didn’t give up on Saturday night and we proved there is still loads of fight left in us.

“We know what’s at stake on Tuesday night. Three points. The World Cup. And that’s just absolutely everything.”

Scotland players and fans had an anxious five-minute wait after the final whistle as Denmark enjoyed a significantly-greater amount of stoppage-time in a bid to get the win that would have sealed their trip to North America.

“It was a rollercoaster but what we’ve got is an opportunity on Tuesday to get to a World Cup, which is something we have all dreamed about, we continue to dream about,” 31-year-old McGinn said.

“In strange circumstances, but we just need to use the momentum at the end of the game to try and get us over the line, and we know we are capable.”

Scotland will likely need a far better start against Denmark than they delivered in their two meetings with Greece.

Clarke’s side were outplayed for more than a hour at Hampden but quickly responded to going behind and two set-piece goals and a goalkeeping error helped them win 3-1.

They conceded inside seven minutes on Saturday and goalkeeper Gordon made most of his seven saves inside the first half-hour.

Scotland had a good spell either side of half-time but were three goals down before they really mounted sustained pressure.

“We knocked our heads together in the dressing room,” McGinn said of the slow start.

“We know it wasn’t good enough to start with. But the character from the boys not to buckle…. It could easily have gone four, five, six.

“But we get the next goal and we believe we could go on and draw and we probably should have. We spurned a lot of chances.

“But it goes without saying, Denmark won’t give us the same opportunities to get back into the game. We need to make sure we start on the front foot, get the crowd behind us and give everything.”