Scotland 2-2 England: We can still make World Cup finals, says Christophe Berra
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Scotland can still qualify for the World Cup finals in Russia, despite the "bitter disappointment" of conceding a late equaliser to England, according to defender Christophe Berra.
Harry Kane's stoppage-time strike in the 2-2 draw leaves the Scots six points behind the Group F leaders.
"We've always got hope," Hearts' Berra told BBC Scotland.
"Now we've got four massive games, all winnable games. And, if we play like that, we've got a great chance."
Berra admits the Scotland dressing-room at Hampden Park was a miserable place after Saturday's draw with England.
"The atmosphere in the changing-room would have been a party if we'd won," he said.
"I thought the boys put a great effort in, especially as some hadn't played for a long time and you could see we were getting a wee bit tired towards the end.
"The manner in which we lost it right at the end, that's Harry Kane. Give him half a chance and he'll put it away.
"It's hard to sit here and say it's a good point given the manner in which the game went in the last minutes, but we'll take the point against England."
Berra thinks Gordon Strachan's side will still take plenty of positives from the draw and their performance.
"They didn't create many chances, we had half chances," he said of the balance of play. "They did have the bulk of possession, which you expect them to do - they're a good team, their players play at a high, high level.
"We're disappointed, but we've got to be proud of ourselves as well. They were heavyweight boxers, we were middleweight."
Berra, who has joined Hearts from Ipswich Town, admits that the equaliser was preventable but reflected on the quality of Tottenham Hotspur striker Kane, who captained England.
"Harry Kane has scored 20 goals and was top scorer in the Premier League and I don't think he done much all game," he said.
"But that's why he's a top player. He gets half a chance and it was a great finish. Someone else might not have done that."
Left-back Andrew Robertson felt that he, fellow defender Charlie Mulgrew and goalkeeper Craig Gordon were found wanting at the England leveller.
"We could have had maybe a four versus two going up the field and we could have just killed the game off," said the Hull City defender. "We've gave it away cheap and then it's went out wide.
"It's one of those balls in between me and Charlie and it's at a good height that maybe Craiggy could have come out, but all three of us have got to look at ourselves that we could have done a bit better. It's a disappointing one."
Scotland next travel to Lithuania and then host Malta and Slovakia, who are four points ahead of Strachan's side in second, before facing Slovenia away from home in their final group game.
"I think we do have to win the remaining fixtures," said Robertson. "If you look at the fixtures we've got, we're capable of winning them all if we can perform like that."
Celtic's Gordon was philosophical about taking a point against a team who have not lost a qualifier since 2009.
"You can't get too disappointed about it," said the goalkeeper. "The manner in which it comes about is obviously not how we would have liked, but if it was the other way around and we had scored at the death, it would have been a good point."
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had broken the deadlock after 70 minutes before two Leigh Griffiths free-kicks put the Scots on the brink of victory.
Gordon said both England goals were "difficult" to deal with.
"The first one has come through a lot of bodies," he said. "I was quite late reacting to it, I didn't see it until late on and had to swing an arm at it, but didn't get enough on it to keep it out.
"But the second one we had the ball on the counter and we've lost it and we weren't set up to defend."
- Published10 June 2017
- Published10 June 2017
- Published10 June 2017