Scotland star Callum McGregor says the team can now strive towards qualification for their first major tournament in over 20 years.

The midfielder was speaking after helping the national side move within 180 minutes of Euro 2020 with a 3-2 win over Israel at Hampden on Tuesday night.

A hat-trick from McGregor's Celtic team-mate James Forrest saw Alex McLeish's men come from a goal down to seal a vital win.

And the 25-year-old was full of praise for the squad who managed to record two wins in a week that started off with negativity surrounding the amount of players pulling out.

He said: "It was a frantic game and really end-to-end.

"They looked dangerous on the counter attack and we looked dangerous as well.

"There probably could have been a few more goals in it if we are being honest but we are delighted to get the result and get through that last ten-minutes.

"It was a really big effort from the lads and shows we have some really big characters in there that when you are up against it they can help you pull through so it is great."

Despite being without important players like John McGinn and Kieran Tierney for the Albania/Israel double-header, McGregor feels the ones that did play have every right to want to keep their place in the team.

He said: "I think when you win two big games back-to-back then you have every right to want to keep your jersey.

"Obviously that is up to the manager but it is the boys who are playing that have done the business and it will be hard to argue against that but we know we have a good squad as well with all the boys who missed out and we have good numbers going forward.

"I think we knew meeting up on Sunday that it would be a massive week for the country and we had had a wee bit of criticism labelled at us, but to be fair, and credit to the lads, I think you can see with the team performance that everyone was really working hard for each other and covering each other and it just shows you that kind of mentality can take you really far in football."

Scotland have now set-up a play-off semi-final clash against Finland, assuming neither team qualifies through traditional means.

And McGregor feels they can use the positivity surrounding the squad to push on towards guaranteeing their place at the top table for the first time in France 1998.

He said: "Obviously we have that insurance in the back pocket now but I think off the back of a good week we have got to be positive.

"The nation has to get behind the team as well and we can really strive towards achieving something that hasn't been done in a long time."