Serbia talk a good game, Scot hopes to play one

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Shaun Maloney will have little trouble remaining composed in the febrile atmosphere of Hampden on Saturday.

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Martin McMillan

The Scotland winger had Sinisa Mihajlovic's dismissive assessment of the national side put to him yesterday but was unmoved at the end of it, simply shrugging off the comments the way he would an eager defender.

The Serbia manager – whose side face the Scots in Glasgow this weekend – has already made claims that his side are patently stronger than both Scotland and Wales, and expects to take maximum points from their opening two matches against them. If it had been meant to provoke the Scots into doing something rash then it didn't seem to be working.Maloney was never likely to rise to the bait. The diminutive Wigan Athletic player is an unassuming character off the field and can seem both considered and relaxed on it. That is only enhanced by the sense of confidence he says pervades Craig Levein's squad as they prepare to begin the arduous task of reaching Rio in two years' time."He [Mihajlovic] is obviously confident in his team and he's trying to give his team confidence," he said. "On our side of things, I think we have to be just as confident. I don't think it really makes too much difference whether I sit here and think we will be better and disagree with him."The performance on Saturday will dictate who wins the match. I think the confidence in the squad has certainly grown over the last year-and-a-half or so."The last campaign ended very well. It started slowly but the confidence grew. We had the game against Australia last month that we played well in. We are in a reasonable place and now we will see if we can take that into the actual qualifiers."The Scots head into the double-header at home to Serbia and Macedonia on the back of the 3-1 win over Australia at Easter Road last month. Maloney believes Scotland must continue to produce the goods at home to have a realistic chance of coming through a tough qualifying group, which also includes Wales, Belgium and Croatia."The home games are pretty crucial. All our home games will probably dictate where we finish in the group. It's imperative that we start off on the right foot," said the Wigan winger. "I don't know if we need to win every one but in the majority we would need to look at getting wins."I think there will be points dropped along the way by most of the teams in the group."We need to believe. There is definitely a chance for us to qualify if we are at our best, particularly in the home matches. We are pretty optimistic at the start of the campaign and we're just looking forward to the games starting."Maloney has had an inconsistent international career and believes the group assembled by Levein has ample competition to ensure no-one suffers from complacency. "If you don't start you need to take the decision professionally and show respect for your team-mates who have been selected," he said."There's a game three days later so there might be a reason and that might change. If you don't start you just need to get on with it."

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Serbia talk a good game, Scot hopes to play one

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