Gordon Strachan to plot best way forward following Scotland’s friendly matches
After wins against the Czech Republic and Denmark in March challenge matches, the Scots were chastened in the 1-0 defeat to Italy in Malta last week before they were dismissed by the impressive Euro 2016 hosts.
Gordon Strachan claimed his Scotland side had to take the hard lesson they learned in the 3-0 friendly defeat to France in Metz to plot the way forward in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers. After wins against the Czech Republic and Denmark in March challenge matches, the Scots were chastened in the 1-0 defeat to Italy in Malta last week before they were dismissed by the impressive Euro 2016 hosts, whose victory came through a first-half double from Olivier Giroud and a header from fellow Arsenal star Laurent Koscielny.
Scotland are the only British Isles country not to be at the Euros this summer and Strachan will now prepare for their opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Malta in September, a match which he believes will be all the better after his side's French experience.
He said: "We have had four friendly games, we had to experiment, we have experimented and we take a lot of information from that which is great and we will de-brief and see what is the best way to go forward.
"I do believe after the performances in the qualifiers, we do know that we are better than some teams in it and definitely as good as some teams that are in it.
"We have chosen to play some of the best teams in the world in the last four games to find out what we can do.
"Sometimes you have to take a hard lesson which we have. But I emphasise this, those guys kept plugging away, it would have been easy to fold.
"So we get that, we know from the last Euro qualifiers that we can play football and score goals and play attractive football.
"We will now try and improve with the information we have got.''
Strachan praised the French side saying: "If there is a better team than them then we are in for a fantastic Euros.''
The former Scotland midfielder noted how well his players did, adding: "I'm not as tired as the players, that's for sure.
"It is easier for us to sit and think we could have done this, we could have done that, but when you are out there playing against a World class side, it is harder for them than it is for us to watch it.
"For us to get anything and make any sort of progress in the game we have to be at our best and at times that didn't happen."