Liam Cooper urges Scotland to rediscover shutout ‘pride’

Scotland must rediscover their “pride” at keeping shutouts, says defender Liam Cooper.

The Scots play Gibraltar in Portugal on Monday and host Finland on Friday before opening Euro 2024 against hosts Germany on 14 June. Steve Clarke’s side also face Hungary and Switzerland in Group A.

With five defeats and two draws in their past seven fixtures, Scotland have not kept a clean sheet since their last win away to Cyprus in September.

“The last few camps we haven’t had the wins we wanted,” said Cooper, 32.

“I know we’ve played some top nations but we need to get back to ourselves, priding ourselves on clean sheets and doing everything we can to win games. That’s certainly been the message this week.

“This [match with Gibraltar] is going to be a good game for us. We don’t underestimate anybody and we’ve got to get a strong performance, full of energy.”

Leeds United defender Cooper has won 18 caps since making his senior international debut in 2019.

“You’ve got to put yourself in the manager’s thoughts whenever you play, whatever minutes you get,” he said.

“You’ve got to be at your best and give your all for this team and, to be fair, every single player has in training and we drive each other.

“We’ve got a great feeling around the place and obviously it’s going to be a tough decision for the manager and it’s going to be tough to take for whoever does miss out, but right now our focus is on obviously getting in that final squad and getting on that plane to Germany.”