Paris match will rouse cocky Scots, insists upbeat McLeish
Manager feels side have confidence to frustrate France again on Wednesday,
says Patrick Glenn
As a way of measuring the magnitude - and the unlikelihood
- of a Scotland victory over France in Paris on Wednesday, it would be
advisable to imagine Gretna completing a home and away double over Celtic
in the league.
Unlike the struggling promotees to the Scottish Premier League, the Scots
are not second from bottom of Group B of the Euro 2008 qualifying, but
the perceived disparity in class between the two countries is emphatic
enough to take the strain of the analogy.
Nor does the fact that the dark blues have already beaten Les Bleus in
the first leg - the 1-0 victory at Hampden Park last October - necessarily
reduce the odds against a repeat. If anything, there is a suspicion that
the memory will simply make France mad.
But, if the Tartan Army view the occasion as an opportunity to make a
pilgrimage to one of the world's most alluring cities, Alex McLeish and
his players regard it as a return to one of the international game's great
battlefields. With the Stade de France under occupation by the bruisers
of the Rugby World Cup, the match will be played at the older Parc des
Princes, which has a break in the tournament.
'There's a great atmosphere at the Parc,' said McLeish. 'I've played for
Scotland there myself, and I seem to remember that the French scored three
breakaway goals that night'.
The Scotland manager has been a committed and diligent student of European
football throughout his 31-year professional career, but is especially
knowledgeable about, and impressed with, the French, an admirer of the
attention to cultivation that has resulted in their crop of outstanding
players through the past 25 years or so.
'I've always been interested in the European game and had a fair knowledge
of clubs and countries throughout the Continent,' said McLeish, 'but,
as a club manager at Hibs and Rangers, the French market was invariably
easier to deal in than the others. So I've become particularly familiar
with what they do there, how they raise exceptional young players through
their phenomenal academy system.
'What they have at the moment is typical of what they've had for decades,
a group of players with pace, power and great technical ability all the
way through from first man to last.
'For us, it's a brilliant challenge, a marvellous opportunity for our
younger players to further their education, while we need the experience
of those who've been around and taken part in such great occasions before.
It's not a frightening prospect, but a privilege. To be able to play in
a game of this magnitude is where we want to be.'
The return of his captain, Barry Ferguson, who was suspended for yesterday's
match against Lithuania, should be a fillip for McLeish. The commanding
29-year-old Rangers player is likely to be complemented by younger, confident
types such as Scott Brown, Darren Fletcher and James McFadden from whom
McLeish draws great encouragement.
'McFadden's type of mentality is important,' he said, 'and I think that
James and Darren, coming through the hard times for Scotland in recent
years have actually inspired a lot of the other players who have broken
into the international fold because of what they have shown. That, when
you get knocked down, it's about getting back up again. The McFaddens
and Fletchers have shown the mentality required at the top level of the
game and Scott Brown has it naturally. We have a lot of confident young
players.
'I don't see anybody walking about in training looking as if they're thinking,
"I shouldn't be here." It's a new era and it's good to see.
We've spoken about the absence of the gallus, cocky Scot in previous years
and we should welcome his return. Instead of everybody looking at them
and saying, "Oh he's too cocky," why should we not encourage
our young kids to be confident as they're growing up instead of knocking
them down all the time by saying you can't do this, you can't do that?
He added: 'And it's not just a case of telling them to go out there on
to the pitch and have belief. There has to be evidence that they already
have that. And the games they've played so far provide that evidence.
Walter [Smith] was the manager when we beat France last year and I was
abroad at the time, but I saw the match on TV.
'We rode our luck a little at times, but you have to make your luck against
the best teams in the game and we did that. I thought through the second
half, after Gary Caldwell scored, we improved and the French ended up
looking frustrated. We have to try to frustrate them again.'
, September 9, 2007
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