GORDON Strachan has hinted he will stick with his winning team as Scotland bounce straight from one crucial European Championship qualifier into another one tomorrow night in Poland.
A stiffer challenge and a different sort of game awaits against the buoyant Poles in Warsaw but after posting their first points with the weekend win over Georgia, Strachan is likely to trust the same players to deliver another positive result. No fresh injury problems arose yesterday as the squad prepared to fly out from Glasgow this morning.
Darren Fletcher was dropped and relinquished the captain's armband to Scott Brown against Georgia and the Manchester United man may again be on the bench tomorrow. An already difficult fixture was made more daunting by Poland's startling 2-0 win against Germany on Saturday night. The Poles and the Republic of Ireland are both on six points from two games in Group D, with Germany and Scotland on three and Georgia and Gibraltar pointless.
Chris Martin and James McArthur came on as substitutes in Saturday's 1-0 win but if fitness allows there is a compelling case for Strachan to go with the same starting side tomorrow. "I can't change it too much," said the Scotland manager. "We don't want to get too excited. I am just saying that over the last year we have become more comfortable on the ball. We put things together.
"The Georgia game was one of those where if you make a mistake as a centre-half you are remembered forever. And they [Russell Martin and Grant Hanley] didn't put a foot wrong. I thought the whole back four was excellent."
They will face a harder test against the Poles, though. Arkadiusz Milik and Sebastian Mila scored to sink Germany, confirming that Poland are more than a one-man team entirely reliant on Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski. "Oh aye, absolutely," said Strachan. "Mark McGhee was saying that everyone in the media asked him about 15 questions on Lewandowski and then someone said: 'Are you thinking too much about Lewandowski?' But you've just asked me 15 questions about him!"
Strachan will hope that his side are able to ask a few questions of Wojciech Szczesny tomorrow, with the Poland goalkeeper having also acknowledged that the home side will be under pressure to deliver another compelling victory. The Arsenal man was able to keep the world champions at bay and admitted that fans will expect Scotland to be brushed aside.
"If there is pressure on anyone then it's on us," said Szczesny. "We've just beaten Germany and people will now expect us to beat Scotland and beat them with ease, but that will never happen as they are a top side.
"We can't allow ourselves to get complacent because that can happen after a big result. Scotland have fantastic players who have played in the English Premiership. Steven Fletcher and Darren Fletcher have been fantastic and so has Charlie Adam, who can't even get in the team."
Strachan's side won on
their last visit to Poland - Brown scored the only goal in a friendly win in March - and Szczesny hopes that result will serve as a reminder to his team-mates not to drop their guard tomorrow.
"Scotland are a fantastic side and beat us in March," he added. "It was only 1-0 but they beat us fair and square and I believe they played very well. We need to
be at our best because they have players in their squad who have played maybe 200 or 300 games in the English Premiership.
"Scotland have made big steps forward. When we played them
in March they looked like a very dangerous side."
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