Gordon Strachan has declared that he is "a proud man" following Scotland's "epic" 1-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland in their Euro 2016 qualifier.

Shaun Maloney struck the only goal of the game to move his side level on points with Ireland in an intensely-fought Group D after four rounds of fixtures.

"I am a proud man tonight," Strachan told BBC Sport shortly after the final whistle. "That was an epic duel. We knew what was going to happen and we dealt with that.

"It was hard, we kept trying to play and from a Stuart McCall corner kick we scored a goal!

"Stuart had the idea. It was a variation on what we were going to try and it worked. You need to be a great player to score a goal like that. Ireland were a handful all night, it was like a British cup tie. This is the hardest group of them all and one goal decides every game."

Scotland, Ireland and Germany are now all tied on seven points apiece after four games.

Written by
Kristian Johnson