John McGinn turns attention to getting result at Wembley

John McGinn believes Scotland must get at least a point against England on Friday to keep their Euro 2020 hopes alive.

The Scots fell to a 2-0 defeat against Czech Republic at Hampden on Monday and now face a trip to Wembley before playing Croatia in Glasgow next Tuesday.

Defeat on Friday would not necessarily end Scotland’s chances as the format of the competition means just one win could be enough to reach the knockout stages.

McGinn said the Scots paid the price for not taking a number of opportunities which fell their way against the Czechs, who silenced Hampden with a stunning 50-yard strike.

McGinn battles for the ball against the Czechs. SNS Group

The Aston Villa midfielder said: “It is extremely disappointing, the whole occasion was set up for us to get the three points.

“Czech Republic scored at important points in the game and they were more clinical than we were, so ultimately we were punished for not taking our chances.

“I felt in the first half we struggled to get myself and Stuart (Armstrong) on the ball, we certainly did that in the second half a wee bit more, but Schik (the Czech striker who scored from 50 yards) came up with an excellent finish.

“So that was a bit of a hammer blow and you need to try and come back, you have a mountain to climb and need to score two goals.

“We gave it our all and certainly had chances to do that, but unfortunately it didn’t go our way.”

The 26-year-old believes Steve Clarke’s men have what it takes to surprise Gareth Southgate’s England side.

He said: “To give ourselves a chance to get out of this group, we know we need to get at least a point on Friday.

“We know what we need to do, we need to get something at Wembley, it is our own fault as we had an opportunity to get a good result today.

“But we can either sulk about it or we can roll our sleeves up and go and put on a performance and get a result that we are capable of.

“I think there was enough in the game for us to be positive about, we created those chances so it’s just about taking them and hopefully they will go in on Friday.”