TOMORROW night, the Tartan Army must come together as never before to help the Scotland squad achieve what most of us thought was impossible earlier in this World Cup qualifying campaign.
With England as top seeds, we were never going to finish first in the group and second place and entry into the play-offs was the best we could hope for.
Yet after the defeats in Slovakia and England who really thought we could finish even second? We are here, however, and the task is simply stated – win the next two games and we are still in the World Cup.
Everything will depend on results elsewhere when it comes to making the play-offs, but first and foremost Gordon Strachan’s men must win tomorrow night and in Slovenia and then hope that other countries drop points.
It is still a big ask, but victory over Slovakia is a must if Scotland is to have any chance of making it to Russia next year. Even if we beat the Slovaks and achieve a very difficult away victory against Slovenia, we will still have to go through the play-offs providing, that is, we are not the worst second-place finisher, because don’t forget that only eight of the nine second placed teams are guaranteed to go through.
If we do win both our games, we will have 20 points and that should be enough to make it into the play-offs but then comes the real problem, for our world ranking will mean that we are unseeded and will have to face a much better placed nation over two legs.
At the moment, we could be facing the likes of European champions Portugal, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Wales or the Republic of Ireland from Group D, Greece and England’s conquerors from Euro 2016, Iceland. Indeed there will be a whole host of nations who would fancy the chances of beating Scotland in the play-offs.
But all that is in the future, and what matters most of all is that we win tomorrow night.
Losing Scott Brown is a huge blow, and Stuart Armstrong’s absence is also painful though not as much as the loss of the captain who has been in vintage form recently.
Strachan bit the bullet and called in Callum MacGregor to the midfield – he could hardly do anything else after the Celt’s superb two-goal performance against Hibs at the weekend – but the two key players for Scotland tomorrow night will be Craig Gordon and Leigh Griffiths.
The goalkeeper pulled off the save of the season at the weekend and will need all his famed powers of concentration as Scotland will surely attack from the outset.
Griffiths has been getting the game time to make him match fit, and we all saw against England what he can do with a free kick anywhere in goal range. The duo could pout us through.
Strachan must be prepared to mix and match, however, if things do not go right for Scotland early doors, and the fans must be patient above all.
For it might just take to the 90th minute to beat Slovakia and Slovenia, but beat them we hopefully will.
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