Allan McGregor’s Scotland save was one of the biggest moments of last night’s win over Israel.
The Rangers number one barely had much to do all night against the Israelis. Yet, with Scotland 3-2 up and heading for the playoff final, he produced a stunning close-range stop to deny Tomer Hemed from taking it all away from them.
The saved ended up preserving Scotland’s lead in the crunch Nations League fixture. A James Forrest hat-trick turned the game in the Scots’ favour after Beram Kayal had given Israel an early lead. A late strike by Eran Zahavi set-up a nervy final 15 minutes, but McGregor came up trumps.
Scotland captain Andrew Robertson has been the first to come out and sing the praises of the Rangers number one post-match.
“I could see the ball coming over from quite a bit away and David Bates and Callum Paterson weren’t quite getting there. Greegsy didn’t have much to do all night, but he stepped up to the plate and pulled off a fantastic save.
“We needed everyone and that was his contribution. Greegsy has been different class. He probably kept the score down against Israel away, and he won us the game here.
“We believed he would make that save, but from a defensive point of view we need to stop that kind of chance at source and we’ll work on that.”
International hero
McGregor has become a real Scotland hero throughout the Nations League campaign. He’s kept two clean sheets out of the four matches, and made a series of stunning stops to make sure the Scots qualified for the playoffs.
So far under Alex McLeish, the Rangers stopper has played every competitive match. In doing so, he’s therefore cemented his place as his nation’s number one ahead of Celtic’s Craig Gordon.
He’s also been a revelation at Ibrox this season also. McGregor has also wrapped up nine clean sheets this season for the Gers, and is proving to be one of the signings of the summer for the club.
He’s been a key reason as to why Rangers are only two points behind Celtic this season. Fans know that they’re going to get from McGregor, and he continues to produce on a weekly-basis.
His place for both club and country now looks secure, and the man himself looks back to his best.
