Grant Hanley hailed a Scotland 'leader' who will bounce back from Hampden nightmare

Grant Hanley's Scotland team-mates have no doubt that the embattled defender will bounce back from the mistimed tackle that gifted Poland a 3-2 victory at Hampden on Thursday.

Steve Clarke’s side started their Nations League A campaign in the same way they ended Euro 2024 when they conceded a losing goal deep in stoppage-time. But the manner of defeat was far different from the disappointing night against Hungary in Stuttgart in other ways.

Clarke lined up with a back four rather than deploying three centre-backs and the extra midfielder helped Scotland have the better of possession, more attacks and more attempts on goal than their opposition.

Scotland's Grant Hanley looks dejected at full time after the 3-2 defeat to Poland at Hampden. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Scotland were able to show more attacking intent and were unfortunate to be two goals down at half-time following Sebastian Szymanski’s long-range strike and Robert Lewandowski’s spot-kick.

Clarke’s men fought back through goals from Napoli newcomers Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay but a needless foul by Hanley handed Nicola Zalewski the chance to win the game from the spot seven minutes into added time at Hampden.

The Norwich defender has been widely criticised by pundits and supporters, but Lewis Morgan, who earned his fourth cap off the bench, believes Hanley will recover in time for the match against Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday.

"Grant's played at the top level for his whole career so I've got no worries about him being able to bounce back and go again at the weekend," Morgan said. "He's one of the leaders of the group and someone that everyone looks up to so I've got no doubts that Grant will bounce back.

"We're all devastated after the game, none more so than Grant. But football turns around quickly and I've go no doubts Grant will be the first one to put it all right."

Scotland have now won just once in 13 matches, the sole victory in 12 months coming against Gibraltar. Clarke’s men now face a Portugal side who opened their campaign with a 2-1 home win over Croatia with the help of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 900th career goal.

“Losing games of football is never, never good in any way you do it, and obviously to lose the way we did is a little bit tougher to to swallow,” New York Red Bulls attacker Morgan added.

“Football always gives you chances though, we’ve got another massive game on Sunday and they come around quick. You can’t dwell on it too much.

“We did do some really good things on the ball, and that’s not to hide away from the fact that we know there’s things we need to improve on and do better, which we will do.

“I think we’ve shown enough to show that we can compete. There’s positives and there’s definitely negatives from the game as well.

“I’m not sitting here saying that everything’s brilliant, but we know that we did create chances. And we know that we controlled large spells of that game and it’s down to ourselves that we’ve not won the game.

“It wasn’t necessarily anything that Poland did to win the game and we maybe feel that we lost it.”