Scott McTominay has hit out at Georgia’s players over their play-acting in Scotland’s 2-2 draw on Thursday evening, with the result hampering their chances of topping the group.
The Scots had already secured qualification for next summer’s European Championships in Germany but were looking to try and leapfrog Spain and top Group A by beating Georgia and Norway.
While their hopes of doing so are still just about alive, they are now reliant on Georgia winning in Spain after they were held to a draw in Tbilisi.
Napoli superstar Khvicha Kvaratskhelia opened the scoring after just 15 minutes but his effort was cancelled out by McTominay at the start of the second half, with the Manchester United midfielder continuing his excellent scoring form.
Kvaratskhelia doubled his tally not long after but Scotland salvaged a point in the second minute of stoppage time through Lawrence Shankland.
Georgia were desperate to try and cling onto the three points late on with a number of their players play-acting and the match became a rather fiery affair, with McTominay slamming their conduct afterwards.
Speaking to Viaplay, the United man said: ‘Every game at this level is big and obviously they’ve got some really good footballers.
McTominay was on target yet against for Scotland (Picture: Getty)
‘But tonight, the way that they were acting on the pitch I thought was a disgrace, in terms of provoking the referee and obviously us players as well.
‘It’s not the way that it should go but, anyway, that’s football and that’s just sometimes the way it goes.
‘We have to keep our heads but it’s difficult. There’s some disappointed players in the dressing room but I feel like it’s something we can build on in terms of coming back twice.’
Probed further on the behaviour of some of the Georgia players, McTominay continued: ‘It’s sad. They should do something about people just pretending that they’re injured when they’re not and stuff like that.
‘It’s a difficult one to call but rolling around crying like babies all afternoon is not football. For us, we just wanted to get on with the game and play and do our best to win the game. Whereas on the other side they were provoking the referee a lot.’
Incredibly, McTominay has now netted seven times in the Euro 2024 qualification campaign, with only Romelu Lukaku (10) and Cristiano Ronaldo (9) scoring more goals.