Scotland narrowing gap with top teams - Carver

Scotland are closing the gap on the world's top teams and can still finish second in their Nations League group despite an eight-game run without a win, assistant head coach John Carver insists.

And he believes the "quite refreshing" return of key players from injury "can be quite encouraging" as they prepare to host Croatia on Friday before concluding their campaign in Poland on Monday.

Scotland sit bottom of Group A1 with only a single point - from their 0-0 draw at home to Portugal last time out - six adrift of Croatia and three behind the Poles.

"We have two games to go and it's still all to play for, which is a good thing. I think we can be encouraged by the performances," said Carver.

"We should be sitting here with more points, so there's a confidence in the group. If results go our way and, for example, we win both games, we might have a chance of finishing second."

Carver thought Scotland "were close to getting something in Croatia as well" before losing 2-1 and are not approaching this game "with fear" despite facing what he regards as "a top side".

"I think we are closing the gap on these teams and the results have been quite tight and showed that," he said. "But now we need to go that step further.

"It is all well and good getting good performances and getting a draw with Portugal, but it's time for a win. Normally about this time of year, our form has been good in the past and the important thing is we get something out of the first game and see where it takes us."

Carver said his experience of competing in the top tier of the Nations League had shown how capitalising on limited chances, or preventing those chances, could be the difference between a win and a defeat.

With that in mind, the loss through injury of Che Adams is "a blow" given the striker's confident start to his time in Italy with Torino.

However, Carver stressed that: "With Jack Hendry back, with John McGinn back and Stuart Armstrong back, it just shows how competitive the squad is when you think of how well, I thought, we did well in the last two camps.

"We had a lot of different faces and they all did well - so guys coming in who have been with us for a long time with more caps can be encouraging. So quite refreshing."