Scotland coach James McFadden insists the job of reaching EURO 2020 will be far from done if Alex McLeish’s men can win their UEFA Nations League group.
The Scots are looking to kick on from their opening group C1 victory over Albania last month when they play Israel in Haifa tomorrow, before they face both sides again next month to determine who wins the section.
Although winning the section would guarantee Scotland are among 16 teams to feature in the EURO 2020 play-offs, McFadden says doing so would not make his side any less determined to seal automatic entry to the tournament by virtue of a top-two place in their qualifying group, which begins in March.
McFadden said: “It’s a great chance to qualify but the most important thing is to win the games, top the group and get a play-off spot.
“But that doesn’t mean that when the qualifiers come around we just focus on the play-off spot. We still have to go into the qualifiers to win the games required and that way we don’t need the play-off.
“Hopefully we can qualify straight away. It’s a great way for us to build a team and a style of play and be competitive.
“We won’t say job done, relax and look only to the play-offs.”
Despite Israel losing 1-0 to an Albanian side Scotland comfortably defeated last month, McFadden is wary of tomorrow’s opponents but is keen for his own side to impose their threats at the 30,000 Sammy Ofer Stadium.
He added: “They have got good players and it will be tough. We concentrate on what we do. We have players who can cause them problems.
“I know their results haven’t been great but Moanes Dabbur is a good player and Tomer Hemed was at Brighton and will cause us problems.
“But like the Albania game we know we’re a good side and we will play our game and let them worry about us.
“We want to use the attacking threats we have from full-backs and wide areas.
“They are all comfortable on the ball and we want guys comfortable playing football at a high tempo and teams will start to worry about what we are going to do.
“The expectation and excitement levels are building because of how we played and that’s great.
“We want fans excited about watching us play and to come not with hope but with expectation.
“We have players we feel can deal with that pressure.”
