Scotland to focus on the task at hand, says Mark McGhee
Monday 31 August 2015 23:08, UK
Mark McGhee insists Scotland will not waste their time trying to work out their European Championship qualification prospects ahead of the double-header against Georgia and Germany.
After six Group D fixtures the Scots are in third place with 11 points, two points behind the Germans and three behind leaders Poland.
Assistant manager McGhee dismissed the idea that Friday's match in Tbilisi could be the group-defining game of the campaign for Gordon Strachan's side and stressed the need to focus only on the next task in hand without getting ahead of themselves.
World champions Germany visit Hampden Park on Monday evening before Poland head to Glasgow in October.
"You can extrapolate it and perm any number of results from the remaining fixtures and come out with all sorts of outcomes and there are probably three of them which will still have us qualify," he said.
"That is not really constructive. What we can do on Friday night is win the game. Then we look at the other results and say 'where does that leave us?' and then go into the game on Monday.
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"Otherwise you drive yourself insane, you keep yourself awake at night so it is only about the present. This game is all that we are concentrating on.
"We are not mind readers or clairvoyants, we don't know what is going to be happening in the other games or future games.
"Ireland still have a big say in this, Georgia will have a say in it. We can only win against Georgia on Friday night."
McGhee said there was a "calmness" within the squad amid growing excitement ahead of the game on Friday night.
"There is no panic, no anxiety, everyone sees it as an opportunity and we are looking forward to it," the former Scotland striker said.
"It is a positive excitement. It is, 'let's get on that plane and get over there and get started'. Everyone is chomping at the bit."
Georgia have taken just three points in the group so far, although they only suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against Scotland at Ibrox last October.
And the former Aberdeen and Motherwell manager pointed to the national pride of a country which gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and the enthusiasm of their supporters when discussing the challenge Scotland face.
He said: "They are under a new manager [Kakhaber Tskhadadze] and one of the things you find with all countries but certainly with these 'newer' countries, they have a passionate way about them, tribal almost, when it comes to supporting their country and playing for their country.
"You can be absolutely sure they will not want to be embarrassed at home against us.
"They are expecting a lot from their team so we have got to be up for it. We will be ready for Georgia's best performance, not hoping that they are going to play badly.
"If we take that approach we won't be taken by surprise."
Watch Georgia v Scotland live on Friday, September 4 from 4.30pm on Sky Sports 1 HD.
