Scotland under pressure against smarting Slovakia

Slovakia v Scotland,

Anton Malatinsky City Arena, Trnava,

Sky Sports 2, 7.45pm

Gordon Strachan wants Scotland to be 90-minute men in their already crucial World Cup qualifier against Slovakia on Tuesday night. The Scotland boss was happy with most of the 5-1 win in Malta in their Group F opener and the second half of the 1-1 home draw against Lithuania on Saturday, which required an 89th-minute leveller from substitute James McArthur.

Strachan confirmed he will make personnel changes for the game in Trnava against the section’s second seeds, who are smarting after losing their opening two fixtures, while captain Darren Fletcher will have a fitness test on a thigh injury.

The West Brom midfielder won his 75th cap against Lithuania but had to be replaced at the interval by McArthur.

The former Celtic manager, speaking in Bratislava, said: “So far, of the two games, three-quarters has been good. In the Malta game, apart from a couple of minutes in the game, it was good, professional, I liked it. The second half the other day, a lot of crosses, chances, excitement, we got that.

“So three-quarters have been good, so we have to take it into 90 minutes tomorrow.”

Scotland moved on to four points from two games, but the result at Hampden Park put them under pressure for the match against the Slovaks.

Boss Jan Kozak wants his Slovakia side to get out of their World Cup qualifying mess with a much-needed win tonight. After two Group F games the Slovaks have still not scored a goal and have no points after 1-0 defeats to England at home and Slovenia away.

“If we want to have hopes to qualify for the World Cup in 2018 we need to get some points in this match,” Kozak said. “We have got ourselves into this situation with two unnecessary defeats . . . We are at home and we will try to play more attacking football, but we have to get a good balance between defence and attack.”

Scotland have never played Slovakia before, but Kozak believes his side can benefit from their experience of playing British opposition.

“It is good that we have played recently against teams from the British Isles like [Northern] Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Wales and England, because their type of play is similar and the only difference is the quality of players,” he said.

“They love football, they play with great enthusiasm and it will be an interesting match.

“Scotland is stronger as a team rather than individual players, and whether you play them at home or away it is not going to be an easy game.”

With England top of the group with six points from two games, Slovakia forward Róbert Mak accepts that the best chance of reaching Russia is a second-place finish good enough to provide entry to the play-offs.

“All the players were upset by the defeat in Slovenia, but we will try to forget the last match and we will take nothing else but a victory tomorrow,” he said.

“The manager will prepare us as best as possible and we hope we can do it tomorrow and at least be contenders for the play-off.”