Scotland must continue ‘progressive’ approach vs Portugal

Sitting back and soaking up, that was the script against Portugal in Lisbon.

You get the sense it may be the same at Hampden tonight.

But like many of the Tartan Army, The Athletic’s Jordan Campbell is urging Scotland to be a bit “braver on the ball” against Roberto Martinez’ star-studded side.

It’s something he thought Steve Clarke’s were better at in their narrow defeat to Croatia on Saturday, and a sign of the “improvement” the team have made in their Nations League campaign.

“Scotland have got to be realistic, we’re not going to dominate the ball against Portugal,” said Campbell on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.

“Even people, like me, who are calling for Scotland to be a bit braver on the ball, we’d like to see us actually try and play through Portugal at times, but there’s got to be variety.

“I guess if it’s Lyndon Dykes or Che Adams up front, they are going to have to hold the ball up and they may have to play it into their feet for 40 or 50 yards. That was something that I actually thought Scotland improved against Croatia.

“I thought actually on the ball there looked to have been work on actually trying to play a controlled pass into the striker rather than just launching it and having absolutely nobody around Dykes.

“There did look to be a little bit of improvement there.

“Whether I’m searching for things too much could be argued, but there’s definitely two or three things that looked like they were trying to be a bit more progressive and a bit less direct.”

Listen and subscribe to the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast here on BBC Sounds