If you did not see Scotland's daring 2 - 1 defeat in Germany, it would do no harm to watch it back as Gordon Strachan's men will rival us for the automatic and playoff spot in Group D.

The Scottish Sun's chief football writer Robert Grieve was in Dortmund for the match last night and he reported back to us about what we can expect.

"There were real signs of improvement last night in the performance against Germany. We went into that game with a fair amount of optimism but I think the overall performance was far greater than we thought. Since Strachan has come in to the job 18 months ago, there have been signs that we've been heading into the right direction," said Grieve, who sees plenty of reason for optimism.

He characterises Scotland's recent regeneration as a mixture of new call-ups like the goalscorer against Germany Ikechi Anya as well as Strachan improving what he inherited from his predecessor Craig Levein.

Grieve also highlighted the more measured and liberated playing style which has been married to the traditional grit that they have often exhibited.

He pinpointed the next match against Georgia as must-win as they look to battle Ireland and Poland for the second and third spot behind Germany in the qualifying group.