Che Adams, interview: “At the World Cup thanks to Toro. Scotland, believe it”

Grateful to Torino for helping him reach the World Cup and now more determined than ever to make as much progress as possible in the World Cup. Despite the defeat against Morocco on Friday night at the Boston Stadium, Che Adams does not consider Scotland’s adventure overseas to be over: there is one last (difficult) match with Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil and, thanks to the victory on the first day against Haiti, the Granata striker and his teammates still have the opportunity to go through. However, more concreteness will be needed given that facing the Atlas Lions the Scots never finished on target defended by Bounou. They had the opportunities especially at the end, when Adams had already been replaced, and Che regrets this a lot.

Adams, first of all how does it feel to play in a World Cup for the first time and how much do you have to thank Torino for being here?

“Playing in Serie A made me learn many things. I am grateful to Turin who made me grow as a man and as a player. Since I have been in Turin I have improved a lot.”

He ended last season with 8 goals between the championship and the Italian Cup. Now he’s looking for his first World Cup goal.

“I’m happy to have played a good season, to have scored and to the results achieved by the team. Now I focus on Scotland and I’m here to give my all. The experience in Serie A has allowed me and some of my teammates to raise our level, to be more competitive. Let’s put what we learned with the clubs at the service of the national team.”

It wasn’t an easy match against Morocco, but with a bit more luck at the end…

“We tried to find an equalizer until the last minute, but I think the goal conceded at the start penalized us a lot and put us in difficulty. However, the reaction was there and if we had scored the 1-1, it would not have been undeserved.”

Beyond the knockout, among the positive aspects there is certainly the fact that Scotland did not give up.

“I’m proud of the attitude we had. Going behind in the score after about seventy seconds could have made our self-confidence disappear and the match might have taken a bad turn. Instead we once again showed great character and belief in our abilities. In the final, not even luck helped us, but the performance was up to the task.”

After the 1-0, what gave you the conviction to react and try until the end?

“We know that we are a good team and that we have many quality players. We came here to the World Cup aware that we would find strong teams in the group and therefore we were also prepared to deal with difficulties. However, we told ourselves to always remain united. I think it also happened against Morocco. In this competition we can stay there and we will fight until the end to get through to the round.”

Do you agree that to hope for access to the round of 32 you will have to be more cynical in front of goal in the last match against Brazil?

“I believe we are still fully in the running to move forward. We must continue to believe in ourselves and further strengthen our unity. On a psychological level it is hard to lose a match like this, but we must have confidence and move forward. The goals will come.”

Brazil beat Haiti 3-0 and “forgot” the controversies and the 1-1 draw against Morocco.

“We must continue to believe in our qualities and face the next match with positivity and belief in our abilities. We put Morocco in difficulty until the end and even a team of their caliber, in injury time, was worried about conceding a draw. Now is the time not to lose heart and to prepare well for the last match of the group. Brazil is strong, but we must not be afraid.”

Are you ready to challenge Vinicius and Ancelotti’s other champions?

“I feel really good. In our group there are many guys who play at a high level and I’m happy to be one of them. I believe I can help the Scottish national team even more and contribute to achieving something important. I want it with all my heart.”