Seething Aston Villa star John McGinn unleashes referee rant as Man Utd star sees Scotland scorcher disallowed

A seething Aston Villa and Scotland star John McGinn blasted refereeing decisions then went against his national side as they lost 2-0 against Spain on Thursday night.

Steve Clarke's side could have secured their place at Euro 2024 by avoiding defeat to the three-time Euro champions and it looked to be heading that way when Manchester United star Scott McTominay rifled a free-kick into the back of the net from an impossible angle in the 60th minute. However, the 26-year-old's effort was controversially ruled off for outside.

That decision did not sit well with Scotland and after Alvaro Morata and Oihan Sancet delivered a sucker-punch two goals in the closing 20 minutes, the strange refereeing decision left a sour taste in Scottish mouths.

Villain John McGinn fumed after the game and is quoted by The Scotsman. He said: "The big moments went against us. There's no doubt we can still improve but we put in some shift. It's a really tough one to take but we competed for long spells.

"It's very difficult to win here but under the circumstances, it was near enough impossible. You need to be very careful what you say. I think everyone watching from a Scotland point of view whether on the pitch, in the stand or in the dugout, it just felt like we weren't getting a decision.

"50-50 balls, going in for fair challenges and not getting them. It made it very difficult against a world-class team to get anything from the game. The stats will show they had a lot of the ball and better chances. You need a perfect performance here to win and everything to align - tonight it was just never going to happen."

McGinn went on to talk about the decision to disallow McTominay's wonder goal, bemoaning the 'frustrating' call that could prove costly in the country's Euro 2024 hopes.

He said: "He changed it in game, which is the frustrating, and shows it's not clear and obvious. I don't know if clear and obvious is a European VAR thing. Is he going to save it? Absolutely no chance. No goalkeeper in the world is going to save that.

"However, he's saying at one point it's a foul. He then changes it because he realises it isn't a foul to offside. It's a big, big moment because that qualifies us that goal. It's a hammer blow and I feel for big Scotty but sometimes these things go for you and tonight that was never going to go for us."