Scotland midfielder Scott McTominay is eager to pit himself against the world’s best when Robert Lewandowski and Poland come to Hampden Park tonight.
The friendly will see the two sides, who have both seen their World Cup play-offs shelved for differing reasons, come together to play a fundraising game for Unicef in Glasgow.
Lewandowski has established himself as one of the most feared strikers on the planet during his time with Bayern Munich, with more than 300 goals since joining in 2014.
Poland’s talisman also has 74 goals in his country’s colours and will lead them out tonight against Scotland.
“Whenever you are playing for Scotland you want to play against the best,” said McTominay. “That’s the only way you find our if you are any good or not.
“You don’t get any better by playing against not as a good a calibre of player. For us, there will be boys who’ve never played against someone like Robert Lewandowski – myself included.
“It’s important that we look at him as a threat but if he plays it means you need full concentration and if he doesn’t then it’s full concentration on someone else.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s a big name or is just a young kid who’s coming up. You pay your respects to everybody you play against – 100 per cent. ”
McTominay made his debut for Scotland in 2018 and is now among their more established figures in the squad.
He has made himself a regular at Manchester United and is approaching his 30th cap for his country, which he could earn if he features in Tuesday’s game against either Wales or Austria.
“It’s what football’s about, you always want to improve,” he said. “Doing things in your spare time looking to improve, looking at every detail. As you get older you start being more wise about your body and the way you can adapt to certain situations in football and off the pitch as well.
“I’m just maintaining similar to what I used to do when I was 18, 19, the gym work and the analysis work, things I’ve been really conscious of over the years. It’s always benefited me and it’s what I’ll continue to do.
“Every year you want to get better and better as a player and obviously as a person as well it helps.
“Now I’m getting more confidence and becoming more senior, you’d like to think in terms of football and playing for Scotland, you start having more input in what happens.
“I feel like my opinions, and the way I address the game of football, is positive.”
McTominay missed the last camp, which featured wins over Moldova and Denmark, through illness and is glad to be back in the fold for the March internationals.
“That week in Spain I was in my hotel room,” said McTominay. “For four or five days I was struggling with an illness which was quite bad to be fair.
“I couldn’t get out of bed. When I did manage to get home and was watching the games, I hated it. Even if I miss one game of club football or for Scotland against Denmark, it’s hard to watch.
“You just want the game to be over and for us to have won. You just want to get back playing yourself as there’s nothing worse. You feel like you are in the wrong place sat at home watching when all the boys are at Hampden.
“It’s so good to be back.”
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