Scotland boss denies Poland star's claims of being overly-physical ahead of Euro qualifier

Scotland coach Gordon Strachan disapproves of Poland's suggestions his side will be overly-physical

GORDON STRACHAN refutes suggestions from Poland that the visitors will be facing an overly-physical Scotland side in tomorrow's Euro qualifier at Hampden Park.

 

Much has been made of the tackle on Robert Lewandowski by defender Gordon Greer when the teams drew 2-2 in Warsaw a year ago, not least by the Bayern Munich striker who has this week tried to put pressure on Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai.

Lewandowski, who has scored 12 goals in his last four games for Munich and 10 so far in Poland's qualification campaign, reportedly said: "I hope the situation on Thursday is not the same as in Warsaw because after that foul by Greer I couldn't run. I hope the ref will be more diligent this time."

 

Polish manager Adam Nawalka was quoted as describing the tackle on his striker as "brutal" and saying: "We hope the referee will be better and such a situation won't happen again."

However Strachan, who has lost winger Ikechi Anya to a calf injury, used UEFA statistics to compare the physicality of both teams.

 

He said yesterday: "I don't know the officials, or who is refereeing, I don't care.

"All I know is that over the tournament they have had about 30 per cent more fouls (given) against them than we have and more yellow cards than we have, so that is the reality. You can look it up."

 

Robert Lewandowski has put pressure on referee Viktor Kassai to be more 'diligent' ahead of the tie

In eight qualifiers Scotland have committed 80 fouls and picked up 12 yellow cards while the Poles have committed 110 fouls and received 15 yellow cards.

When those statistics were subsequently put to Nawalka at Poland's pre-match press conference, he smiled before saying: "We are anticipating a very difficult game."