Steve Clarke frustrated by Scotland travel chaos on eve of Portugal clash

The Scotland manager Steve Clarke will have talks with the Scottish FA over the travel delays and time taken to get to Lisbon on Saturday night before the Nations League tie with Portugal.

The management and team were held up for more than an hour at Glasgow airport because of a breakdown at a baggage carousel. After the three-hour flight to Portugal they then faced a bus journey of almost two hours because the SFA’s chartered plane was to Beja airport, more than 90 miles’ drive from Lisbon.

“I think it was in Spain,” deadpanned Clarke late on Saturday night. A road accident caused further traffic disruption on the way into the city. Clarke was due to speak to the media at 7.30pm but did not actually appear until 9.15pm. The players’ evening meal was also delayed.

Although Beja airport is used regularly by international teams arriving on chartered flights to play in Lisbon, with France among those who sides to have used it recently, Clarke was clearly unhappy with the arrangements.

“It’s something we have to look at after this,” he said. “I think it’s something for me to discuss with the powers that be after this trip. [For now] I’ve got to focus on the game coming up. It’s a quick turnaround [between arriving and the game at 7.45pm on Sunday night], but we’ve got a good group of players. They’ll turn up tomorrow, don’t worry, and they’ll be fresh and ready to go.

“The only thing is the lads will be having their dinner in the hotel now. I’m sitting here starving. They’re at the hotel, they’ll 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.”

Ryan Christie made light of the problems. “I’ve not found it too bad,” the Bournemouth midfielder said. “I was a boy from Inverness, I had to travel to Glasgow for four hours to play a game on a Saturday when I was younger. I’ve definitely had worse. So I don’t think it will hinder us too much going into the game tomorrow night.”

Scotland are on an awful run of only one win in their past 13 games and now face the toughest fixture of their Nations League campaign, away to the nation ranked eighth in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo will play for Portugal three nights after scoring the 900th goal of his career, against Croatia.

Clarke said his players had to challenge themselves to try to handle Ronaldo and Portugal’s other attacking threats, three nights after losing 3-2 to Poland at Hampden. “That’s what they have to do,” Clarke said. “That’s why they play football. When you play football you want to play against the best teams and the best players. You want to challenge yourself. It’ll be a challenge tomorrow so we have to step up.

“I’ve got to be honest, I think defensively we played well the other night if you take out the individual errors. That’s something you have to work on. These players have to find a way to concentrate for the whole game and not make that kind of mistake.

“The thing is just to get inside the mind of the player and make them aware that when you play against top-one teams, top sides, and certainly the player on one of the best sides tomorrow, one of the best European sides, they have to be focused and any small mistake that you make gets heavily punished.”

Doak started on the bench against Poland and Clarke suggested he would do the same against Portugal

VAGELIS GEORGARIOU/ACTION PLUS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Scotland trained at Lesser Hampden on Saturday morning before their long journey to the Portuguese capital. Clarke said there were no injury issues. Fans were excited by the 18-year-old winger Ben Doak’s debut as a substitute against Poland but Clarke said that he was not ready to play 90 minutes. “We have to protect Ben,” he said. “I think he came off the bench the other night and he showed some good attributes. He’s a young man who’s building a career.

“I’m not really sure the last time he played 90 minutes. He’s had a long period out from January. He was still injured in the summer. He’s had minutes off the bench for Liverpool pre-season and he’s just gone to Middlesbrough [on loan]. 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.”