Andy Robertson: I shared World Cup dreams with Diogo Jota, he’s smiling down now

Andy Robertson hopes his close friend Diogo Jota will be smiling down on him after the Scotland captain realised the dream they had discussed together.

The former Liverpool team-mates spent part of the Qatar World Cup on a training camp in Dubai watching the action on television and plotting to be part of it themselves four years later.

Less than five months on from the Portuguese attacker’s death in a road accident, Robertson revealed his friend dominated his thoughts in the build-up to Scotland’s World Cup qualifying decider against Denmark.

Robertson admitted he had some difficult moments alone in his hotel room in the build-up to Tuesday’s Hampden clash.

And the emotions poured out of the 31-year-old after Scotland clinched a 4-2 win in dramatic circumstances following two stoppage-time goals to seal a place in next year’s finals in North America.

When asked if Jota had been on his mind during the 90 minutes, Robertson said: “Not so much in the game, I tried to park it. Certainly during the day, yes.

“I just go back to the Qatar World Cup when we were on a training camp in Dubai. Obviously Jots missed it through injury. I missed it due to missing out in the play-offs.

“We always discussed how it would feel playing in a World Cup for your country. Obviously it’s probably a bit more likely that it was going to happen for him in terms of Portugal than Scotland.

“As soon as I woke up I just couldn’t get him out of my head. I couldn’t get him out of my head all day. I think I hid it well from the lads probably, but being in the room, all I could think about was him.

“I know he’ll be smiling down now. I know he’ll have a smile on his face wherever he is.

“Hopefully he’ll have a smile in the summer when I hopefully get to represent my country at the World Cup.”