Tag: Kozak

Slovakia Manager Wary of Scotland Threat with Leigh Griffiths

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.

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.

Slovakia Manager Wary of Scotland Threat with Leigh Griffiths

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.

Kozak Targets Win against Scotland

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.