McGinn chooses his words carefully after controversial defeat

John McGinn admitted the need to "be very careful what you say" after Scotland fell to a controversial 2-0 defeat against Spain in their European Championship qualifier.

Avoiding defeat in Seville would have seen the visitors qualify for Euro 2024.

That looked a real possibility when Scott McTominay fired a superb free-kick into the top corner just after the hour mark.

But the goal was disallowed following a VAR check, with the officials initially citing a foul in the area by Jack Hendry before judging the defender to be blocking the goalkeeper from an offside position.

Alvaro Morata and Oihan Sancet went on to score for Spain, who moved to within three points of Group A leaders Scotland.

McGinn said: "We competed for long spells. It's very difficult to win here and, under the circumstances, it was near enough impossible.

"You need to be very careful what you say. I think everyone watching that game tonight from a Scotland point of view, wherever you were, it just felt like we weren't getting any 50-50 decision — it made it very difficult against a world-class team.

"You need a perfect performance here to win and everything to align and it was just never going to happen.

"He [the referee] changed it [his reasoning on the VAR check] in the game, which is the annoying thing. It means it's not clear and obvious.

"Is he going to save it? No chance. No goalkeeper in the world is going to save that. 

"However, at one point he's said it's a foul, realises it isn't a foul, so changes it to offside."