Scotland manager Alex McLeish has said that he was satisfied with his team's performance in defeat against Portugal and looked ahead to "cup finals" against Albania and Israel next month.

The national team lost 3-1 to a second-string Portugal side in Sunday evening's friendly at Hampden with Helder Costa, Eder and Bruma scoring for the European champions, while Steven Naismith scored a late consolation for the hosts.

McLeish rued individual errors that led to the goals but said that he felt the scoreline was harsh when he thought that the team had performed well other than when conceding.

The loss came on the back of a bruising 2-1 defeat to Israel on Thrusday in the Nations League and the manager looked ahead to the two remaining matches in that competition. He said that the sides were put together precisely because they were of similar level and that would mean competitive games where Scotland would have to be at their best.

"We're not in that group for no reason," he said. "We've not been picked with Albania and Israel for any other reason than the rankings.

"So I treat them like cup finals. That's the way we'll look at them.

"We want to win the two of them. [Against Israel] it wasn't intended to be a defensive display, we wanted to go and win the game. But we never did well and individual guys volunteered to say that they weren't on their 'A' game.

"We look for everybody to be on their 'A' game when it comes to those two games."

The defeat to Israel saw pressure build on McLeish and the manager now has two wins and six losses from eight games. He admitted he knew he would take stick over results but said that experience told him that he had to absorb the pressure and continue aiming to succeed.

"For years, every time you lose a game you know that there's going to be criticism but you have to take it on the chin," he said. "You have to bounce back. I use the word resilience.

"I've had a few knocks in the past and I've had a lot of success.  It's never easy to lose and that was a tough one.

"I have to stand up and be brave and take that and take it forward."