GLASGOW — Scotland captain Andy Robertson said his side were "outfought" and "not good enough" after Slovenia came from behind to secure a 2-1 Nations League victory at Hampden Park, overturning Ryan Christie's first-half opener to leave Sebastien Pocognoli's men well beaten on home soil.
Scotland led at the break through Christie's close-range backheel, but were alarmingly open in defence and were punished after the interval as Danijel Sturm and Aljosa Matko struck to turn the match on its head. "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 captain added: "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."
Robertson admitted Scotland had failed to build on Saturday's win in North Macedonia, saying: "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. 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." Head coach Pocognoli echoed that assessment, saying: "We didn't deserve to get the win, that's the reality. On the ball we were not clever enough. We were far from strong enough in the duels. The reality is each game teaches us some information. We will try to go through the process we want and learn from this one and do better in the next one."
Pocognoli, who succeeded Steve Clarke in August promising a more aggressive and attacking style, handed a debut to Josh McPake against Slovenia, following recent first appearances for Stephen Welsh, Robbie Ure, Luis Binks and Luke Graham. Scotland should have won his first match in charge, a goalless draw away to Slovenia, before Jack Hendry's early red card hamstrung them in a 3-0 home defeat by Switzerland. The convincing victory over North Macedonia had delivered optimism, but that was severely dented at Hampden.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday said on Sportsound that Pocognoli's period of grace was now over, calling it as poor a Scotland performance as he could remember against opposition they were expected to beat. Former national team captain Willie Miller questioned the persistence with a back three, saying huge gaps repeatedly appeared as Slovenia got in behind the high defensive line and warning the system had looked "unbelievably poor" despite time on the training pitch.