Robertson blasts 'outfought' Scotland after surrendering lead in 2-1 home loss to Slovenia

Andy Robertson condemned Scotland as ‘outfought’ after they threw away a first-half lead to lose 2-1 to Slovenia at Hampden Park on Tuesday, leaving new manager Sebastien Pocognoli without a home victory in four attempts since replacing Steve Clarke.

Ryan Christie gave Scotland the lead, but second-half goals from Aljosa Matko and Danijel Sturm turned the game on its head and handed the Tartan Army a deflating defeat just days after a 2-0 win over North Macedonia.

“Not good enough,” Robertson told BBC Sport Scotland. “The whole team. We didn’t do the good things we did on Saturday — I don’t know what that’s down to. They caused us a lot of problems and we have to find the reasons why.”

The Liverpool left-back, who earned his 100th cap in Saturday’s victory, was in no mood to dwell on the personal milestone. “We wanted to kick on from Saturday because we had a really positive feeling about what we’re doing and where we’re going. We didn’t do that.”

Robertson pointed to a lack of hunger as the defining factor. “It’s been a long camp — I don’t know if it was down to tiredness, but Slovenia have played the same amount of games as us. They looked a lot fresher, more hungry. As Scotland, we might lack quality or make mistakes, but I don’t think people accept being outfought. I think that’s what happened tonight.”

He did briefly acknowledge the emotion of reaching a century of caps — three of his former managers attended the occasion — but was quick to refocus. “At the end of the day, when that first whistle goes, I don’t care if it’s my first cap, my 20th cap or my 101st. It doesn’t make a difference to me.”

Scotland sit on four points from four Group B1 games and can no longer win the group. They will need results to go their way elsewhere to pip Slovenia to second place and secure a Nations League play-off berth in March. Pocognoli’s side host North Macedonia on 13 November before travelling to Switzerland three days later.