Watford manager Valerien Ismael praised the impact of his substitutes after two of them combined to earn his side a 1-1 injury-time draw against Southampton at Vicarage Road.
With his side trailing to a Che Adams goal, Ismael sent on Vakoun Bayo and Rhys Healey and the pair combined to maintain Watford’s recent improved form.
Ismael said: “The bench had a massive impact today. I’m pleased that the players came on the pitch to make a difference.
“Everyone is a part of the process. We are working with all the players. I tell them: ‘Your minute will come. You will get your chance’.
“Rhys surprised the keeper with the position he shot from. It’s important for him as a striker to score goals.
“It’s great for him to get that reward. It has been a difficult period when he wants to play more. But he contributed to get us a point. This will give him a great feeling and give him the confidence to know that he can do it.”
Ismael also believes that Watford are beginning to assume the mentality of a side that can push for promotion from their current mid-table position. Their next challenge will come against second-placed Ipswich at Vicarage Road on Tuesday evening.
Ismael added: “There is no doubt that we deserved a point. I am incredibly proud of the players and the evolution of the team against a team that was relegated from the Premier League. There was a big desire and the way that we reacted to conceding the goal.
“You can see how the team is evolving. To attack the top of the table we have to become more ruthless. That is the last step in our evolution. Then we will be ready to get more rewards in these games.”
“So we will take this as a learning step because our opponents today were very strong in possession but we had our moments in transition.”
Southampton manager Russell Martin couldn’t disguise his feeling that his promotion-chasing side had let two points slip away.
With Leicester, Ipswich and Leeds all picking up victories, Southampton now sit 10 points off the automatic promotion places.
Martin said: “I didn’t speak very long with the lads afterwards because I felt so disappointed when we came off the pitch.
“Ultimately it is a point against a team that is in really good form themselves and I really liked the second-half performance. The energy was much better. We had a lot of control still and limited them to one really good moment.
“The first half was OK. We had a lot of control but made too many mistakes in the final third, so we changed the shape a bit at half-time to try to help us.
“But with the amount of moments we had of four v three or three v two in the second half, they needed to come to more. We needed to get the second goal and then it’s game over.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re hanging on in games, but I felt that we were going to get the second goal today. We didn’t and then we conceded a rubbish goal, a really bad goal.
“They smash it forward. We should head it. Instead, we try and get under it and Bayo was athletic and heads it and then Rhys hits one of the worst volleys I’ve seen him hit having worked with him.
“I wanted nine points from the three games this week, especially when the teams above us keep winning.
“I also watched stuff that I’m proud of and that I have enjoyed, but we just can’t have too many slip-ups.
“If we win the next two games, of course I’ll be happy. A point here is a positive one but because of the way it happens, it’s a real disappointment.”
Moldova 0-4 Ukraine: Yaremchuk and Dovbyk on target in Euro 2024 warm-up win
Ukraine completed their Euro 2024 preparations with a commanding 4-0 victory over Moldova in Chisinau on Tuesday.
Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk were on target for Serhiy Rebrov's side, who begin their Group E campaign against Romania next Monday.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Andrii Lunin returned between the sticks for Ukraine, who were seeking a response to Friday's 2-1 loss against Poland.
Just two minutes were on the clock when Yaremchuk broke the deadlock on his 50th cap and, though Vitalii Mykolenko limped off in the 30th minute, Viktor Tsyhankov doubled the lead before half-time.
Girona striker Dovbyk – LaLiga's top scorer for 2023-24 with 24 goals – got in on the act four minutes after the restart, before Heorhii Sudakov's strike in the 54th minute completed a comfortable win.
Data Debrief: Yaremchuk moves level with Rebrov
Ukraine will head to Euro 2024 in a confident mood, having lost just two of their 13 matches since Rebrov took charge last June.
Yaremchuk got the ball rolling with his 15th international goal, moving him level with his head coach and joint-fourth on the Blue and Yellow's all-time list behind Andriy Shevchenko (48), Andriy Yarmolenko (46) and Yevhen Konoplyanka (21).
Portugal 3-0 Republic of Ireland: Ronaldo returns with double in final Euro 2024 warm-up
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice on his international return as Portugal completed their Euro 2024 preparations with a 3-0 victory over Republic of Ireland in Aveiro.
Roberto Martinez's side were 2-1 losers against fellow European Championship hopefuls Croatia on Saturday but responded three days later with a convincing victory at Aveiro Municipal Stadium.
Joao Felix opened the scoring after just 18 minutes, while Ronaldo was denied by the woodwork in a one-sided first half against John O'Shea's visitors on Tuesday.
Ronaldo would not be stopped after the interval, though, curling in a fine 50th-minute strike before adding a second soon after in a dominant win, just a week before Portugal's Euro 2024 opener against Czechia.
Data Debrief: Ronaldo stars again
Ronaldo stole the headlines with his 129th and 130th goals for his country, having already broken the Saudi Pro League's single-season scoring record in the campaign just gone.
The Portugal talisman was at his brilliant best here, scoring twice from just 0.49 expected goals (xG) – his personal tally marginally higher than the 0.48 xG for O'Shea's lacklustre side.
Clarke aims for four-point target as Scotland hope for Euro 2024 progression
Steve Clarke hopes to take Scotland into the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time at Euro 2024, with their target simply four points to progress.
Scotland have failed in their previous 11 attempts across the World Cup and European Championship to make it past the group stages.
Hosts Germany await in the Group A opener for Clarke's side on Friday before clashes with Switzerland and Hungary.
With the top two sides progressing, as well as four of the best third-placed finishers, Clarke made his ambitions clear for the upcoming UEFA tournament.
"The bottom line is we need four points to come out the group, that guarantees that you'll come out of the group almost forever," Clarke told BBC Sport.
"That always happens. Three points and a zero goal difference would probably get out of the group so that's what we have to look at – every game in isolation, make sure that we're competitive in every game and realistically you go into the last game with a chance to qualify.
"Hopefully, we've done it before that with the points tally from the first two games but if we get to the last game like we did in the last tournament, we had to go to Wembley, we had to get at least a point against England, we gave ourselves a chance going into the Croatia game.
"Okay, we didn't quite get over the line but at one each in the Croatia game you've got a chance, you've always got that hope, that expectation that you might do it."
Scotland will appear at their fourth European Championship, after 1992, 1996 and 2020, having failed to reach the knockout stages in each of those tournaments.
Clarke's side have just two wins in the finals of the tournament's history, against CIS in 1992 and Switzerland in 1996, and have not found the net in six of their nine matches.
The Scotland manager will become just the third to lead his nation to consecutive international tournaments, along with Andy Roxburgh (1990 World Cup, Euro 92) and Craig Brown (Euro 96, 1998 World Cup).
His message to the players is clear: take it to the last game.
Clarke added: "We play against Hungary in the last game, that's where we want to be – in a similar situation where we know we can get a result and we can qualify."
As for Scotland's starting line-up in Munich, captain Andy Robertson and Lawrence Shankland returned to training in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Tuesday.
"I've probably got two in my mind that I'm still mulling over and we'll work on that in the next couple of days," Clarke concluded.
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