Celtic had two players in action yesterday for Scotland as the Tartan Army kept their hopes of progressing from Group A alive by claiming a 1-1 draw against Switzerland.
On an evening with much riding on it in Cologne, the Hoops pair played the entire 90 minutes, and McGregor got himself an assist to set up Scott McTominay’s opener on 13 minutes.
Ralston also lasted the duration, though his unfortunate misplaced pass was capitalised on in expert fashion by Xherdan Shaqiri, who fired a beautiful first-time strike past Angus Gunn to level the scoring.
Evaluating the situation, the Celtic man wasn’t the only one to blame. Careless ball usage in the lead-up to the chance and the failure from either central defender to drop and receive also played a part; nevertheless, a battling performance from the Scots secured a handy point.
Now, they know a victory against Hungary will more or less guarantee a place in the Round of 16 this weekend.
Callum McGregor on what he saw from Anthony Ralston
Cited via BBC Sport, McGregor lavishes praise on Ralston’s ‘big character’ for recovering from his misplaced pass to deliver a steely second-half display, where he engineered some promising moments by supporting the attack from the right flank.
He stated: “Big, big character and still a young player as well. He hasn’t played a huge amount of football either and to get thrown into that top-level football, he deals with it really well.
“He’s such an honest boy. Listen, that can happen to anybody. People make mistakes, people give the ball away. Sometimes it’s a night when you get punished and sometimes you don’t get punished.
“That’s one that did get punished but to come back and show that level of performance and calmness for a young player speaks volumes for him.”
Andy Robertson also talked up Ralston’s bouncebackability, and he has to be commended for his resilience against a handy Swiss outfit when others would’ve folded.
Football is a team sport, and Steve Clarke’s men will take collective responsibility for conceding the equaliser. They don’t strike anyone as the kind of group to point fingers. Simply, Scotland wouldn’t have got to this stage without possessing an admirable spirit.
From a Celtic perspective, there is still a good chance that McGregor, Ralston, James Forrest and Greg Taylor could be in Germany a while longer if their national side see off Hungary in Stuttgart.