Christophe Berra admits only a victory against Wales tomorrow night will keep Scotland's hopes of reaching the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil alive.
The Wolverhampton Wanderers defender's assessment is blunt, but then there is little point in trying to avoid the truth of what has become a critical tie, even this early in the qualifying campaign.
Already, Croatia, Serbia and Belgium look capable of breaking away at the top of Group A, at least from the losers of tomorrow night's game in Cardiff. Although a trip to Wales should never be underestimated, Berra believes that if Scotland are to be credible contenders for qualifying, the team needs to be able to win games like these away from home.
"Let's be honest, Wales are a team that we're fancied to beat but they'll be saying the same," he said. "They're the kind of team you're trying to take a minimum of three, four points against. You're looking to win both games. To have a realistic chance, that's what you've got to do. That's what you've got to do to win the league if you're a Man Utd or a Man City – you have to win those tough games away from home.
"We know it's a massive game against Wales and neither team can afford to get beat. The pressure's maybe slightly more on them being at home. But to have a good chance of qualifying from this group we need to get a victory. There's a lot of hope in the nation but we've got a good group of players.
"There will be pressure, not just on the manager but on the players as well. We enjoy being here and working under the manager. We like the way training is, we like the way we play. Everyone enjoys coming now, and we'll be going out to get the points."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article