Last night was one to forget for Ronny Deila’s international stars.
Stefan Johansen suffered a 5-1 defeat as Norway crashed in Croatia, Nir Bitton was a second half substitute as Israel lost 3-0 at home to Wales while Jason Denayer watched from the bench as Belgium crushed Cyprus 5-0.
Norway weren’t at the races as Croatia raced into a 3-0 lead before Alex Tettey of Norwich scored in the 80th minute but the home side responded with two more goals to take their points total to 13 from 5 matches.
Looking forward to their next match, at home to Italy on June 12, Croatia coach Niko Kovac said: “We cannot relax after this victory. We detected some things we need to work on, we definitely need to improve in some details, as Italy are coming.
“That will be a crucial match and the fans can expect a beautiful and interesting game. I’m sure the stadium will be sold out, the fans will be our motivation and after everything we showed in this year’s qualifying, we can continue in the same direction.”
Despite the heavy defeat Norway coach Per-Mathias Hogmo said: “The fight was that we wanted it. It might sound strange when we lose 5-1, but there were many things I was happy with.
“Losing 5-1 is not a good result, but I think we succeeded battle plan. I would not have done anything differently.”
Gareth Bale was the star turn scoring twice as Wales beat Israel 3-0 with Bitton introduced in the 60th minute, on Tuesday Israel face Belgium just three days before Celtic’s match at St Mirren.
Scott Brown and Craig Gordon are expected to be in the Scotland side that faces Gibralter while Emilio Izaguirre will be hoping to help Honduras turn around a 3-1 deficit against Guyana in the play-off stage for the Gold Cup Finals.