The last thing John McGinn could be accused of is being arrogant. However, the humble Scotland international reckons the national team has developed a healthy confidence - and possible cockiness - that has helped fuel a recent run of impressive results.

That's not to say Steve Clarke's Scotland side go into matches expecting to bulldoze teams or with a disregard for their opposition, but rather that there is no fear factor or grave concern over the capabilities of rival sides.

It's a refreshing approach that has in turn yielded results with a comfortable win over Cyprus and an upset triumph over Spain at Hampden. Ahead of a huge week back in Euro qualifying with a trip to Norway before taking on Georgia, confidence could again play a key role if Scotland are to continue the momentum and remain on top of Group A.

“There might have been a bit of a fear factor before," said McGinn of the shift in attitude in the Scotland squad.

“We may have been defeated even before going into that game. But with the experience everyone in our squad has now that’s not the case.

“We have boys up the road playing European football, in big games, against top players. We also have boys down here in England playing against household names week in and week out. So that fear factor naturally goes.

“You realise you have to compete against them and as much as you have respect for them you have to treat them like any other player.

“I’ve said that’s an arrogance and I don’t want us to come across as an arrogant group.

"But there is certainly more confidence and belief which you can see in the performances.”

READ MORE: Scotland won’t be overawed by Manchester City star Erling Haaland

Part of the recent success with back-to-back Nations League promotions was an expectation of theoretically easier draws in major tournament qualifying.

It's a theory that was quickly thrown out the window with Scotland handed an awkward group despite their lofty seeding.

However, McGinn and Co refused to dwell on the challenge and instead use it as motivation to secure another spot in the Euro finals after making it in 2020.

“I think we were all looking back expecting an easier draw," admitted SFWA International Player of the Year McGinn. "I know I was excited about being in Pot Two, watched the draw and thought, 'That’s typical of our luck'.

“But you let that settle in, you think: Right that’s a challenge for us and one we need to take on with confidence.

“I think we have developed a wee bit of arrogance on the park. Something we didn’t have before.

“Instead of being fearful of people and teams whether that is individually or as a group, we now come together with full belief we can get results.

“The position we are in is a very good one, but we know with how little games there are in this group, only one result could change that. Two wins in the summer will be extremely difficult, we know that. But the two games we had to start were tough and we managed to come through them strongly.

“My job now is keep playing away, everyone’s job is to stay fit. Obviously, we've come across a couple of injuries already, but we have one eye on keeping fresh and fit and also staying injury free as well.”

While the seismic result over Spain - which was relatively comfortable at Hampden - signals a serious opportunity in qualifying, keeping Erling Haaland quiet against Norway could be more of a challenge.

The striker missed the first two qualifiers for his country - a draw and a defeat - but will be back in action in Oslo after sealing a Treble for Manchester City.

For McGinn, it comes back to a balance between respect, a healthy tinge of concern, and confidence aided by the ever-increasing self-belief evident in Scotland's national team.

READ MORE: Billy Gilmour’s perseverance shows he can fulfil his huge potential

On the threat of Haaland, McGinn explained: “He’s certainly a player Georgia and Spain were fortunate to avoid in the last two games. He’s obviously one of the world’s best players.

“But alongside that they also have Martin Odegaard who has been one of the key players in the Premier League this season.

“So it’s not just a case of stopping Halaand means stopping Norway.

“It’s not as simple as that as they have threats from different areas of the park.

“Both off them are the outstanding players in the Premier League and they are definitely ones we have to keep quiet.

“But if we’re to try and compete in major tournaments - and compete in pot 2 or pot 1 or division A in the Nations League - then we are going to come up against players like that.

“Certainly, our defence has shown before it’s capable of keeping top strikers quiet. It might be slightly more difficult with the big man.

“But we’ll be doing everything we can,  to firstly stop the service to him and secondly doing all we can to stop him.

“We’ll respect him, we know what he’s capable of. But obviously we need to focus on what we can do to hurt them because we have players in our squad - who might not be spoken about as much - but are still to be feared.”

And if it takes some dirty work to achieve a result? McGinn couldn't care less as he admitted a disregard to the complaints of Spanish internationals over game management tactics employed by Clarke's charges.

He concluded:  “We never really care what anyone else thinks. If they want to grasp all over that then it just gets ignored."