His club form has been replicated on the worldwide stage, where the striker leads the way in the Euro 2016 on 10 goals from eight games. That made it 12 goals in four games for the 27-year-old, whose team face Scotland at Hampden Park on Thursday. He came on at half-time against Wolfsburg and scored five in ten minutes.
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“It’s when one is accepted you have the decision to make”. You do that no matter what opposition you are facing, whatever your position is. I accepted it in my days because there were other good players in the squad and I wasn’t playing as well as I could have done. They are still pushing for first place.
“We’ve been hugely encouraged by Leigh Griffiths all season”, McGhee said. Making a telling contribution as Scotland overcome Poland, Gibraltar and then a potential play-off tie might just top the lot.
“But we have players in form as well, players who scored at the weekend”.
“We do not want them or rail staff having to endure any kind of anti-social behaviour or disorder which a minority of football supporters get involved in”. We lost three points against Georgia and we have to try to make that up now.
The Hull City star said: “We are determined to take this country back to a major championship”. England and Northern Ireland, I think, have got it quite easy.
“We’ve discussed things with his manager so it’s not as if I’ve not had a few sympathy with his situation”.
“However, we thrive on that”.
“Scotland go into every game off a solid platform and they’ve been put into a qualification group in which there has not been much margin for error”.
“We have come to be convinced that the system we play is the best for the players that we have”, said Strachan’s assistant, Mark McGhee. We must keep a cool head, be calm and above all not be afraid.
“We will take care of him and everyone else”.
“Hampden was full for the Germany game, as was Parkhead for Ireland”.
Despite the disappointments the last qualifying double-header brought, Robertson believes the squad gathered at their west of Scotland base this week refreshed and ready for the daunting task ahead. Otherwise you’d look back and regret not being focused on the game or what you are doing.
And how can Scotland succeed where so many other defenders have failed?
Poland striker Lewandowski continued his exceptional goalscoring spree on Sunday with a double in Bayern Munich’s 5-1 win over his former club Borussia Dortmund. He said: “So far so good”.
“Someone asked me about us playing two strikers”. Fletcher is a better bet at holding the ball up, linking the play and being an aerial threat on the worldwide scene.
It appears unlikely that both Fletcher and Griffiths will start.
He added: “I picked Leigh at Under-19 level for the European Championship and still remember negotiating with the Italian owners at Livingston”.
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“The gaffer doesn’t have control over players leaving – at the end of the day it’s higher up than him”. He’s been brilliant. It’s been hard for him and I know that and understand that. “You need a bit of strength in there”.
