CHRISTOPHE Berra hopes to help the Tartan Army party like its 1999 against Slovakia at Hampden Park tonight.
While at least one goal will be required as Scotland chase the victory which will see our hopes of a first appearance at a major finals for 20 years roll over to Sunday evening in Ljubljana, the Hearts defender knows our chances of doing so would be greatly enhanced if he and his chums in the Scotland backline can become the first to record a third successive clean sheet in qualifying matches since Craig Brown’s group kept Estonia, Bosnia and Lithuania at bay en route to those agonising Euro 2000 play-off ties against England.
These were the days of David Weir, Christian Dailly and Colin Hendry.
While Berra is keen to point out that all the best teams start defending from the front, it is worth pointing out a further statistical quirk. Should they go on to achieve it, the entire back five who have kept the clean sheets, including goalkeeper Craig Gordon, will have been predominantly left-sided.
Logic at least suggests this may be an asset, considering most international players they come up against are statistically more likely to be right-footed.
“Obviously the last two games as a team we performed well, we scored goals and managed to keep the ball out of our net as well,” said Berra, who once again is likely to be partnered by Charlie Mulgrew, and flanked by Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson. “That is what we are planning to do tomorrow as well.
“Charlie is a good player, we all know that, obviously the back four has kept a few clean sheets, so the two of us get a bit of credit for that but it is all about the team,” he added. “People up at the top of the pitch put in the work too and it filters all the way down. The defenders were all left-sided in the previous two games, and that is the first time I can remember that.
“It might be a nervy game, but if we perform as we did against Lithuania and Malta we will give ourselves a right good chance.”
Berra, in line to win his 39th cap, and his 28th start, for his country, has been part of the international set-up for a decade. That is long enough to have tasted a fair share of disappointments when the chips are down at the business end of these qualification campaigns.
Most notable of these came in September 2011 at the height of the era of his current club boss Craig Levein, again against opponents from the former Czechoslovakia.
Losing a late penalty which never was – converted by Michal Kadlec, after Danny Wilson had been stitched up by Czech striker Jan Rezek – was bad enough. But things went from bad to worse when Berra had an even later penalty claim waved away by Dutch referee Kevin Blom.
“Someone mentioned the 2-2 with the Czech Republic to me the other day,” said Berra. “We could have had a penalty for myself in that one. And Danny Wilson supposedly gave a penalty away at the other end, which was never a penalty – I don’t think Danny touched the guy.
“It would have changed the outlook of the group if we had got the three points, which we probably should have. But like any football career, there are highs and lows. Sometimes in football, you are better being lucky than good. Hopefully we can have luck on our side tomorrow.”
Berra can be relied upon to put his head in harm’s way against a Slovakia side who scored all three of their goals in the win in Trnava last October from crosses.
“One thing I try and do is lead by example on the pitch,” he said. “I put my head in where it hurts and hopefully people follow from that.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here