Scotland goalkeeper David Marshall feels Poland could be affected by the physical toll of their historic triumph over Germany - but he does not expect any complacency to creep into the home side's ranks in Warsaw.
Poland can go six points ahead of Scotland in their European Championship qualifying group if they win on Tuesday night, and Marshall believes that incentive will spur the Poles on to build on their 2-0 win over the world champions on Saturday.
The Cardiff player said: "Obviously, physically, it's a quick turnaround from the Saturday game. We have been travelling and they have two games so it might not be as bad, but definitely physically against Germany you are going to struggle because of the amount of possession they have.
"In terms of mentality, I think the Polish players are experienced enough at that level - there are a lot of top, top players in there - that I don't think it will affect them at all.
"They know how important it is to follow up Saturday's result. It will put them in a great position if they can go and beat us as well.
"So in terms of mentality I think that will be spot on, so it's up to us to impose ourselves on the game and hopefully get a victory."
Despite the prospect of a major gap opening up after three games, Marshall does not believe it is necessarily a game Scotland must take something from.
"I think it's impossible to say this early in the campaign," the former Celtic player said.
"Other team's results are out of our control so all we can do is concentrate on our own game and take confidence from the last 18 months. We will just look to perform as we have done."
Scotland have won in Zagreb, Molde and Skopje under Strachan, as well as in Warsaw, when Scott Brown thundered home the only goal in a friendly in March.
Marshall feels they can repeat their heroics on the road if they continue the improvement shown.
"Obviously that game Poland had a few players missing," he said. "Their main striker [Robert Lewandowski] is back as well so we're expecting a tough game and they will be on a high after the result on Saturday.
"Obviously it's a qualifier now so it's a totally different game, but hopefully the result performance we had here in March and the performance we had on Saturday can stand us in good stead and we get a good result.
"We're going to be under pressure at times but I think we've got enough quality to come here and put in a positive performance and hopefully get a victory."
Marshall played in that March friendly, with Gordon Greer and Russell Martin just ahead of him, and the same central defence might be in action again after Blackburn's Grant Hanley failed to travel after picking up a knee injury during Scotland's 1-0 Group D triumph over Georgia on Saturday.
"The squad has cover," Marshall said. "Grant will be a huge miss, he was exceptional on Saturday, and has been for the last 18 months. But we'll take confidence from the last result we had here and confidence from the last 18 months under the manager."
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