Scotland confident of Tbilisi triumph
With two games remaining in their Euro 2008 campaign, the Scots are four points away from guaranteeing a place in the finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1998.
Amid all the unprecedented hype which surrounded the 1978 World Cup, MacLeod had promised the country he would come back with a medal, a claim which backfired on him spectacularly after Scotland failed to escape from the group.
Said McLeish: “There is nothing wrong with showing confidence and we have to at this stage, as long as it’s not conceit and it’s not.
“I don’t think there have been any statements that we are going to win the European Championships or the World Cup so in that respect the players have been able to handle everything.
“The players have earned the right to be confident.”
McLeish added: “There is still a lot of work to be done. It is very close and yet very far.
“We know that at the very worst, we can take it to the last game against Italy at Hampden.
“We will try to win it within our strategy. I am not going to tell you that we are going all out for a victory or that we will attack, attack, attack the whole game.
“The Italians and French are more experienced and by rights, the two of them should be better teams than us so let’s not forget that.
“It’s our intention to win tomorrow night and it is our intention to qualify.”
McLeish has lost Lee McCulloch and Garry O’Connor to suspension and Scott Brown and Alan Hutton through injury.
Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher, who suffered a knee injury in the 1-0 win over France in Paris last month, has declared himself fit and Reading’s Graeme Murty has also been drafted in.
Meanwhile, Georgia coach Klaus Toppmoller believes 17-year-old goalkeeper Georgi Makaridze will take the first step towards greatness when he makes his debut against the Scots.
The third-choice Dinamo Tbilisi ‘keeper, who has never played for his club side, will take over from national number one Georgi Lomaia who had a nightmare in the 2-0 defeat in Italy at the weekend.
“He is the greatest talent that I have ever coached,” said Toppmoller.
“In two years he will be playing for a big club in Europe — who knows, maybe after this game? He has been fantastic in training and I think he will have a great career ahead of him.
“Great players like Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff were playing at 17.”
Georgia, with seven points from 10 games, have no chance of qualifying from Group B. !!
“Scotland have a very good defence and have good players like Barry Ferguson, Kenny Miller and Darren Fletcher.
“But the best of all is James McFadden, he could play for any team in Europe,” the Georgia boss added.
Toppmoller confirmed that striker Georgi Demetradze is suspended while midfielder Levan Tskitishvili is still out injured.
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