Scotland CAN salvage Nations League campaign with second spot as Lawrence Shankland love in laid bare

John Carver believes Scotland could still salvage second place from their Nations League group.

A goalless draw with Portugal last time out stopped a depressing run of defeats as Steve Clarke's men went toe-to-toe with Ronaldo and Co to claim their first point of the campaign after being promoted to the top tier of the competition. Croatia visit Hampden on Friday before a trip to Poland next week, and while the Scots needs two wins and snookers, Carver isn't ruling out the possibility of Scotland finishing as runners up.

"I think we're in a position where we've got two games to go, and it's still all to play for, which is a good thing, and I think we can be encouraged by the performances," he said. "We should be sitting here with more points, that's a fact, but we should be sitting here with more points, so I think there's a confidence within the group of saying, right, we've got two games to go, it's all to play for.

"I think there's an outside chance if results went our way - for example, we won both games - we might have a chance of finishing second. What we've done over the years is, we've worked hard to get ourselves into this position, which is fantastic, and we don't want to disappoint by coming out of that top group, because you only benefit.

"I keep saying this, you benefit well against the best teams, the best players, and our young players will develop. We've got quite a few young players who've come through from the under-21s, and they're gaining massive experience for the future.

"In fairness, we've not said anything to the players about where we finish, because I think it's more important about preparing for the game, and making sure that the performance is right, and we set ourselves up the right way. We