Scotland squad in Portugal travel chaos as flight lands 100 miles from Lisbon

STEVE CLARKE will demand answers from the SFA after travel chaos to Portugal.

The Scotland charter flew into a military airport almost 100 MILES outside of Lisbon.

It meant a two-hour bus trip to the capital, with Clarke unhappy his squad’s preparation was affected.

If followed an earlier delay to take-off from Glasgow.

Asked why the SFA chose to fly into a location so far away, Clarke said: “I thought it was in Spain!

“To be honest, I can’t. It’s something we have to look at after this. But we’re finally here now, so let’s crack on with the football questions. It’s something for me to discuss with the powers that be after this trip. I’ve got to focus on the game coming up.”

The SFA press chief insisted international teams often fly into the Beja Airport.

But Clarke was raging his players didn’t eat until around 10pm tonight.

He added: “The only thing is the lads will be having their dinner in the hotel now. I’m sitting here starving.

“They are at the hotel, they will be eating.

“The only real downside, apart from the length of time it took us to get here, is the fact that their dinner is probably a couple of hours later than they would normally do.”

Clarke insists Scotland can bounce back from Thursday’s last-gasp loss to Poland at Hampden here in Benfica’s Stadium of Light.

He said: “Football can be a cruel game at times. But you have to learn to be resilient. We can’t worry about it too much.

“You have to move on in football. It was a good performance and a very disappointing result.

“Hopefully a very good performance on Sunday and a better result.”

Meanwhile, Clarke insists he has to be careful with Liverpool starlet Ben Doak, 18, and not rush him into big-game action.

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He added: “We have to protect Ben. He came off the bench the other night and he showed some good attributes.

“He’s a young man who’s just building a career. I’m not really sure the last time he played 90 minutes.

“To be honest, he’s had a long period out from January.

“Ben was still injured in the summer. He’s had minutes off the bench for Liverpool pre-season.

“He’s just gone to Middlesbrough and he’s not ready to play 90 minutes. He’s certainly not ready to play 90 minutes at this level.

“We will try to bring him along slowly over the next couple of years.

“Hopefully he progresses and becomes a big player for the country. But we have to protect the boy.”

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