We must cut out mistakes before Albania, says Andy Robertson

Scotland captain Andy Robertson admits they need to cut out the errors if they are to move forward following their 3-1 friendly defeat by an under-strength Portugal.

Alex McLeish's side were largely improved from the poor performance in the 2-1 defeat by Israel on Thursday, which left Nations League Group C1 wide open ahead of Scotland's double header against the same team and Albania next month.

But they conceded cheap goals in the Hampden loss.

Wolves winger Helder Costa got in front of Robertson to net the opener in the 44th minute after Scotland had allowed the visiting left-back to overlap and deliver a low cross, before Eder headed in the second relatively unchallenged from a simple free-kick and Bruma made it three on the break before Steven Naismith's late consolation.

Robertson said: "I thought it was a lot better, the performance especially first half was positive and we caused them a few problems, but mistakes have cost us again and we need to cut them out. It's too many games now that that's happened. Obvious mistakes are costing us.

"If we can cut them out then I feel we can move forward but the next two games are big and there is no room for error.''

The Liverpool player was happy with his team's spirit but warned they cannot start next month's double header badly in Albania.

"That's never been questioned about a Scotland team, we always bounce back from the negative results,'' he said. "But we need to cut out those results and if we can do that we will be in a lot better place.

"This result wasn't good enough but the performance was a lot better. It's something we can build on but we can't keep having a setback and bouncing back, we need to get a run of games where we are consistently putting in good performances.''

With three defenders dropping out before the game, the 24-year-old was restored to his usual left-back role after playing wing-back in recent matches.

But he dismissed talk of the formation as an issue.

"I enjoyed it,'' he said. "Obviously we knew we were playing a 4-2-3-1 and Cal (Callum McGregor) was on my side and we linked up well, but the formation has been talked to death. That's up to the manager, whatever formation the manager picks then we need to go for it.

"With the call-offs that we had, this formation suited us. The lads looked as if they enjoyed it and people were playing in their positions, but at 3-5-2 we play in our positions as well and we need to be better at it. I don't think the formation really had anything to do with Thursday, I think too many people just didn't show up and that was probably the biggest problem.'