GORDON Strachan has stressed Scotland are capable of winning their penultimate Euro 2016 qualifier against Poland tonight without resorting to roughhouse tactics against their prolific striker Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski, the deadliest goal scorer in world football today, this week predicted he will be kicked off the ball at Hampden and issued and appeal to Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai to protect him.
The Bayern Munich player was the victim of a crunching challenge by Gordon Greer in the Group D match between the countries in Warsaw in October last year and failed to net in a 2-2 draw.
However, Strachan, whose side need to draw or win the meeting with Adam Nawalka’s team in order to qualify for the finals in France next summer, has brushed aside the derogatory remarks.
He pointed out that Poland had committed 110 fouls and received 15 yellow cards in their eight qualifying matches to date – compared to the 80 and 13 respectively for Scotland.
“I would think if you went back 30 years ago, when anything went, then they could lay claim to that,” said Strachan.
“But the game has changed, it has been sanitised a lot since then and for the good players this is the best time to be an attacking player by a million miles.
“The surface is great for your control and the rules mean the players are looked after so everything is right.
“There is actually a lot of respect between the two teams having played one another twice. I get on well with the coach.”
He continued: “We have felt our discipline has had to be good. I don’t want people sent off and costing us things.
“Charlie’s red card (Mulgrew got sent off in the opening game against Germany) didn’t cost us anything. It was late in the game and it was sheer exasperation. It didn’t hurt anyone.”
Scotland supporters will be hoping the Republic of Ireland to draw or lose their game against world champions Germany in Dublin this evening.
However, Strachan revealed he will be focusing fully on helping Scotland to collect all three points at Hampden and will not be paying any attention to events at the Aviva Stadium.
“I thought we were progressing nicely enough and that we would have been a couple of points ahead,” he said.
“I’m not disappointed with what the players have done in terms of performance and all the rest of it. I’m just disappointed that we’re a couple of points behind where I thought we might have been.
“There’s an excitement. What we have to deal with is a big game and a full house. I’m delighted that we have a full house.
“I don’t know how big it will be, win lose or draw until after the game. But I know it’s important. I know everybody’s excited about it - so that’s a plus.
“There are so many permutations to this. Let’s just go for the win, eh?”
Strachan confirmed yesterday that Ikechi Anya, the Watford player who has been a key playing for Scotland during their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, has returned home due to a calf injury.
He will, therefore, be without three first team regulars in this outing; Anya, Charlie Mulgrew, the Celtic man who is also out with a thigh knock, and James Morrison, who is suspended. But Strachan said: “We’re well covered.”
Strachan’s contract expires after the double header against Poland and Gibraltar - but he stressed he would only look at his personal situation after the qualifying campaign was over.
Asked what the future held for him, he said: “My future’s quite healthy, thank you. As I said before, let’s get this out of the way and we’ll have a look at it after that.”
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