Slovakia managerJan Kozak says that he is concerned about the threat of Scotland in the latter stages of the World Cup 2018 qualification group, as the team appears to be better than ever due to the presence of a strong Celtic factor.

Scotland are back in the race for World Cup 2018 qualification after moving within a point behind Slovakia after the latest round of results. Slovakia appeared to be in a comfortable position heading into the last three matches, but a 2-1 loss against England in the latest qualifier led to the team dropping perilously close. Scotland were able to get an uninspiring 2-0 victory over strugglers Malta even at home. Yet, it is the three points that matter the most and Slovakia will be travelling to Scotland for a key match in the upcoming World Cup 2018 group.

Ahead of this match,Kozak claims that the philosophy of the Scottish national team has changed with the manager Gordon Strachan taking a lot of influences from the Celtic team in order to improve the national team as a whole. It is not surprising considering that Celtic have the strongest representation of players at the national team and some of them are extremely important – like Leigh Griffiths.

The Celtic striker has been in excellent form at the start of the campaign and will once again be key in this game. Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest, Scott Brown, and Craig Gordon are some of the other Celtic names in the squad.

“The philosophy of the Scotland team has changed after we beat them 3-0. The body of the team is made up by Celtic players and they have a wide range. They are now playing 
really well. I do not want to talk about individuals because football is a team game. The Scottish team has a strong team with a lot of personalities, starting with the goalkeepers, with great defence and 
ending with the excellent Griffiths as striker,” said Kozak.