SHAUN Maloney believes Scotland must strive to emulate the physical and technical excellence of France in order to end their absence from the finals of a major tournament.

Former Celtic forward Maloney started for the national team in their friendly match against Les Bleus in the Stade Saint-Symphorien in Metz on Saturday evening.

The Hull City man, who was winning his 47th cap, was helpless to prevent Gordon Strachan’s team from slumping to a heavy 3-0 defeat to the Euro 2016 hosts.

It was a worrying performance given that Scotland get their Russia 2018 qualifying campaign underway with a game against Malta away in September.

However, Maloney believes the meetings with France and Italy six days earlier have shown the Scotland players how they must perform to progress to their first finals since France ’98.

And the 33-year-old believes they will be better prepared for their Group F games against England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta as a result of the double header.

“At least on my part, it is important you try and bridge the gap,” he said. “When you play in a match like that it reaffirms the things you have to do on a day-to-day basis at your club. The preparation and dedication that is needed to try and get close to a side like this.

“I think the challenge, not just for the current Scotland players, but every Scottish player, is that when you watch a side like this you have to aspire to bridge that gap any way you can.

“It is two friendlies at the end of the season and you have to take it that way. You can take it the negative way too.

“But the other way to take is that pre-season with your club you are going to have to work very, very hard to try and bridge that gap between the elite teams and us any way you can.

“Because that is what is needed; real hard work. There are things that they can do physically and technically that as a country we must strive for. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”