Angus Gunn tonight held his hands up and admitted he should have done better at the Bruno Fernandes goal he conceded in Scotland’s agonising 2-1 defeat to Portugal in Lisbon.
However, the Norwich City goalkeeper, who produced several outstanding saves during the course of the Nations League encounter in Estadio da Luz, insisted the national team deserved to take something from the game.
And he argued the display against the former European champions in the Group 1 fixture augurs well for the future and shows they will be able to put their Euro 2024 disappointment firmly behind them in the coming months.
"The first one was coming through a lot of bodies," he said. "I got there and was probably a little bit frustrated with that one. I take that on the chin.
"I think when you get that amount of contact on it, you're obviously disappointed as a keeper. But it's come through bodies. I feel like I did get a little bit of my hand to it. I will be disappointed with that.
"Obviously, I'll analyse it with the coaches and come back stronger."
Read more:
- Steve Clarke reckons Scotland 'deserved something' from Portugal clash
- Scott McTominay scores again as Scotland lose to Portugal
Gunn added: "But there were definitely moments in the game where I was happy with how I did. I thought we defended really well.
"They've got some quality players and we limited them. We kept them down the sides. Unfortunately, in the end, the pressure told. We were disappointed that we didn't hold on.
"But the manager said in there, 'Keep your heads up, keep believing'. The last few performances have actually been very positive.
"Even though we've not picked up any points, in the Poland game we probably dominated the second half and deserved something from that game. Then we come here to one of the best teams in Europe and put on a performance like that.
"We've got to take the positives from that. The team we are, we're trying to build, looking to the next World Cup qualifying campaign. If we can come here and put on performances like that, that will put us in good stead for that one coming up."
Gunn praised the travelling Scotland supporters for their backing against Portugal and admitted he was heartened when they applauded the national team off the park after the final whistle.
"I think they always come in in numbers," he said. "To be fair, it was quite hard to see them with the floodlights up in the top. But they were brilliant.
"I feel like they'll be proud tonight because the performance we put on against such a good team. There really is a lot of positives to take from it."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel