Extremely poor form at the start of the World Cup qualification campaign has led to Slovakia being in a dire state even after just only four games. Manager Jan Kozak says that the only hope for the national team when it comes to qualifying for the World Cup 2018 is to beat Scotland in the next game.
It represents one of the toughest fixtures for the national team in the qualification campaign apart from facing England. A good start to the campaign is always essential when it comes to qualification and Slovakia certainly did not achieve this after back-to-back defeats.
Admittedly, Slovakia did not have the easiest starts to the World Cup qualification campaign after coming up against England and Slovenia in their opening two matches. Losses from the Euro 2016 campaign severely dented their confidence going into these matches. Now, though, they have an opportunity to recover with opposition like Lithuania, Malta, and Austria set to offer little resistance going forward. In order to take advantage of these features, Slovakia have to win against Scotland. The top two teams qualifying for the World Cup with the second team having to go through a play-off place.
Surprisingly, Lithuania currently occupy the second spot with Scotland and Slovakia further behind. "We have got ourselves into this situation with two unnecessary defeats. I think we could have done more. So we need to win this match if we want to keep hopes of qualifying. It is up to us to get out of this situation. If we want to have the hopes to qualify for the World Cup in 2018, we need to get some points in this match. But it is not easy to win matches at international level,” said the manager, who has been in charge of Slovakia since 2013.