Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Strach believes in Scots squad
MANAGER Gordon Strachan will expect the unexpected when Scotland face Malta in their World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park tonight.
The Scots breathed fresh life i nto their hopes of reaching Russia next summer with a 3-0 win over Lithuania on Friday night and are odds-on to beat the Group F’s bottom side in the second match of their Group F double-header
However, Strachan does not believe anything can be taken for granted.
He said: “However you think a game is going to go, as you lie in your bed as a manager the night before a game, it never ever turns out that way. Never.
“Sometimes you get pleasant surprises, sometimes you get horrible surprises.
“But at the moment, as I look at the players, the way they trained yesterday, especially the guys who didn’t play the other night, I am as confident as I can be.
“But you are always wary, there is always something round the corner to trip you up.”
Strachan, however, can certainly be more confident now than at any other time during the campaign.
Scotland are unbeaten in their last three qualifiers and still probably need three wins from their last three Group F games to capture a play-off spot.
But their position is a whole lot healthier than it was when they lost 3-0 to England i n London l ast November to leave them with four points from four games.
Strachan said:“The belief has always come from the group of players we have got, which has evolved over the last year for different reasons — confidence, injuries, people playing better, their club sides doing better.
“If we didn’t believe in ourselves, when you are not on a good place you can’t get out of it.”