Guus Hiddink says Scotland can go into the Euro 2012 qualifiers with some confidence in qualifying. The Russia boss was speaking after Sunday’s draw in Warsaw where Scotland were pitted against Spain, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Liechtenstein for a place in the 2012 finals.
Hiddink said that although the European champions would be a stiff test the second seeds were a good match for Craig Levein’s side. The Dutchman also said that the recent match against his homeland showed Scotland could match the top sides.
“Spain have the experience and it’s not easy to beat them,” the manager said.
“But Czech Republic must be at the same level of competition.”
“You have seen your team better than I have but they played against Holland recently and are a respectable team. It was a very good game so they can be at full confidence.”
Scotland lost that match against Holland 1-0 at Hampden to a late Eljero Elia goal. However, the final qualifier was one of the better performances of the campaign and the national team’s new manager Craig Levein will be looking to build on the positive signs from that match.
Levein is tasked with leading Scotland to their first major championships since 1998 and the rookie international manager could do worse than look to Hiddink for advice. The experienced boss has moved between club and international management in recent years and enjoyed the midas touch when it comes to major international tournaments.
Though reaching the World Cup quarter finals with Holland is not remarkable, taking South Korea to the same level in 2002 saw Hiddink revered as one of the smartest operators in the international arena. The Dutchman proved he had a knack for raising the level of performance in any team under his charge when he took Australia to the knockout stages of the 2006 World Cup and masterminded Russia’s run to the European championship semi-finals in 2008.
Though he had a six-month spell in charge of Chelsea last year, when he won the FA Cup, Hiddink remains in charge of the Russian national side. At yesterday’s draw he saw his side drawn against Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, FYR Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra.
