The Aston Villa star reckons one Celtic defeat illustrates that Kazakhstan isn’t an easy place to go in football.
Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn believes that Celtic’s defeat in Kazakhstan a couple of years ago puts Scotland’s result in perspective a little.
The Scots suffered arguably their worst-ever defeat on Thursday as Alex McLeish’s side lost 3-0 away to Kazakhstan in Euro 2020 qualifying.
The Celtic contingent – James Forrest and Callum McGregor – know the feeling of losing in that country, after the Hoops lost 4-3 away to Astana in a Champions League playoff in 2017.
And the Aston Villa midfielder reckons that result is evidence that it was never going to be a walk in the park for him and his fellow Scots this week.
“We knew how difficult it was going to be,” he told The Scottish Sun. “You see how Celtic fared when they went over there. It’s not easy at all.
“It’s a sort of different animal, but we prepared for it.”
If we’re honest, McGinn might be scraping the barrel here.
Even if Celtic – who won the first leg 5-0 – lost in Kazakhstan, it doesn’t excuse Scotland’s result. Not in the least. It’ll forever be remembered as a horrific result and one that the country’s football fans will want to forget.
The good news is that the Scots could – and absolutely should – bounce back tomorrow when they visit San Marino.
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