SRECKO KATANEC last night refused to rule out the possibility of Slovenia qualifying for the Russia 2018 play-off ahead of their meeting with Scotland – and admitted that he would postpone his decision to stand down as manager should they do so.

The fourth-placed team in Group F need to beat Gordon Strachan’s side in Ljubljana this evening and hope that Slovakia fail to beat Malta in Trnava in order to finish second in the section.

Katanec revealed that he would be leaving his position in order to address “personal matters” following his team’s defeat by England, who scored in the fourth minute of injury-time, at Wembley on Thursday evening.

However, the former Partizan Belgrade, Stuttgart and Sampdoria defender has stressed he will only move on once his national side have no chance of reaching the World Cup.

“The expectations are still the same as with any other game,” he said. “We still have mathematical chances to qualify and as long as that is the case we will do our best. We are well prepared and the atmosphere within the squad is good. I hope that tomorrow we do our part and then hope for the best in Slovakia. I know there will be a lot of Scotland supporters at the game tomorrow and this will give their team an added boost, but we are going to try to do our best.”

Asked about his own situation, Katanec said: “I can’t go into too many details right now. I will explain my decision afterwards. If we are not in a position to qualify I have some personal problems that I want to take care of. But if we make the play-offs I will stay on, there is no question about that. I will finish this campaign with the team. If we qualify for the play-offs of course I will be there, if we qualify for the World Cup then of course I will be there. I will put my personal matters on hold.”

Slovenia have not lost a match at the Stozice Stadium in this campaign and have only been defeated once at home in a competitive fixture in the last four and a half years – by England in a Euro 2016 qualifier back in 2015.

In addition, they haven’t conceded a single goal in their four matches against England, Slovakia, Lithuania and Malta and Katanec stressed they were keen to maintain that record against Scotland.

However, the 54-year-old admitted his team’s habit of conceding late goals – Chris Martin netted against them with just a couple of minutes remaining at Hampden back in March to secure a narrow 1-0 win over Scotland – was a concern.

“Every game is a story in itself,” he said. “We have conceded very few goals, only five in the qualifiers and two were in the first game against Lithuania. We’re very good at the back. We have got some good results. I would change the rules of the game so that the game only last 80 minutes – we have conceded quite a few goals in the last five minutes which have put us far away from qualifying. Late goals happen.

“In my opinion at the end of the game the physical strength of the players and the experience are important. The understanding is better so slip-ups in the last minute are less likely to happen. There is also the luck factor and there is the referee. In our game in England there were two situations where the referee could have pointed to the spot. In England we wanted to win the game. We wanted to press forward in the last few minutes.”

Katanec revealed that Scotland’s aggressive style of play was difficult for his team to cope with and admitted he was unsurprised they had put themselves in a position to clinch the play-off spot by winning four and drawing one of their four qualifiers this year.

“I know the Scottish team is good, very good,” he said. “In the first game against Slovakia when they lost I thought they played very well until the moment they conceded. They have a style of play that we are not really too comfortable with. They are very aggressive. At home, they have a crowd that will spur them on regardless of the result. If it is good or bad they will have home support anyway.

“It is very important we are aggressive and compact and attack the second ball. I am not surprised by their good form after our game. They have a team that has been formed and every team will have its ups and downs.”

However Roman Bezjak, the SV Darmstadt striker, believes the task facing his team-mates is a significant one and hinted that while Slovenia are determined to win the game, they are likely to be up against it.

“We don’t have a chance to qualify, but we know Scotland need to win to go to the World Cup play-offs," he said. "We will play like we always do though, and we will want to win the game. We want to win for the people of Slovenia, our fans, we always have to give them 100 per cent. I played in Glasgow and it was a really tough game,” he said. “When we have played away we have had a lot of problems in this qualification group, and Hampden was a really difficult place to go. When we have played at home, we have played better, and now against Scotland I hope it will be very different to that night in Glasgow.

“At home, Scotland were so aggressive and they played very well, and 1-0 wasn’t a fair reflection on how much they dominated us. They had so many chances and should have won by two or three at least. I was very impressed. In Slovenia though we are hoping it will be a different story, and hopefully for us, a different result.”