Assistant coach John Carver has branded Scotland’s squad the “most focused group” he has ever worked with and stressed there were no thoughts of Euro 2024 qualification ahead of Friday’s game in Cyprus.
A fifth win from five qualifiers in Larnaca could see Scotland qualify on Tuesday night, when they host England in a friendly, if other results go a particular way.
But Carver knows the only outcome they can effect is on Friday night at the AEK Arena and nothing else is worth thinking about.
The former Newcastle interim manager is sure Steve Clarke’s players will only have eyes for Cyprus and not next summer in Germany.
“We have not even discussed England or anything outside the game on Friday night against Cyprus,” he said.
“We have to put all our energy into the game. We have to stay humble and show humility.
“Going into this game is all about hard work, preparation, players being focused and making sure all our efforts are going into this game.
“The players are very level-headed so they don’t listen to the outside noise, and that’s important. And we encourage that.
“As a group of staff and players we have had some big games recently and they always say the next game is the biggest, and it is. But it’s not about ‘can we qualify on Friday night?’
“We haven’t done anything yet, it’s only the halfway stage, there are still four games to go and you know how quickly it can turn in football.
“We don’t get ahead of ourselves, all we are thinking about is Cyprus. Looking at the guys when they came through the door and in training, they are really focused.
“When you have got a good group of guys and enjoy being together, they police themselves and we just make sure we put the right things on and do the right things in preparation.
“Of course it’s really exciting but you can’t get ahead of yourselves, you have to make sure you are in the right frame of mind going into the game.
“If we do what we do well, if our organisation is good, if we work hard, if we do all the dirty things well, then it gives us a great opportunity.”
Carver, who has coached at the likes of Leeds, Sheffield United and West Brom as well as his hometown team Newcastle, added: “You know what? In all my years of working with football teams, this is the most focused group of people I have worked with.
“That’s an honour for those guys because I have worked with some good teams and good players, but these guys are right on it.”
Carver has also managed abroad, at Toronto and Omonia Nicosia, which gives him useful insight into what Scotland will face on Friday night.
Despite a 9.45pm local kick-off time, the temperature is forecast to be 28C during the game.
Cyprus have yet to take a point in the group and lost 3-0 at Hampden, but Carver stressed they had some notable recent results, including a 2-2 draw in Armenia in March.
After a training session at Lesser Hampden, Carver said: “We have said on a number of occasions how tough the game is going to be. On the previous three occasions against Scotland there’s been one goal in it.
“But they have also had some decent results and performances, their performance against Armenia, winning in Israel, which is extremely tough, because we found it tough out there, and losing in the last minute against Georgia.
“I know Cypriot football pretty well and the standard’s got much better in recent times.
“Normally the crowd are quite intimidating but it’s more families and children who go and watch the national team. So the most important thing will be the heat. It will be hot, the pitch will probably be dry, so it’s something we will have to deal with.
“But we are in great conditions here at the moment and we are acclimatising to it.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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