STEVE CLARKE says his Scotland team will not be daunted by the challenge of taking on Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland, with his own English Premier League players knowing exactly what to expect from the prolific striker.
Clarke and his men travel to Oslo to take on Norway on June 17th in a massive qualifier for next year’s European Championships in Germany, but he says he won’t be making any special provisions to nullify the threat of Haaland, who has scored 52 goals in all competitions since arriving at City last summer.
Instead, he will focus on what Scotland can do to impose themselves on the Norwegians, and hope that will be enough to see his men pull off another impressive result to back up the win over Spain in late March.
“We have English Premier League players as well, so we have players playing at a high level and they understand what to expect from players like Haaland,” Clarke said.
“Unbelievable season. Great player. He’s got good ability and his goalscoring record speaks for itself. But he is playing in a half-decent team in Man City, who do create a lot of chances for him.
“If we as a team can limit the chances for Norway, then maybe we can control Erling Haaland a little bit better.
“I think the key is just to play as well as we can play. We concentrate on ourselves.
“We always respect the opposition, but we prepare our way to play our way, and hopefully that will be good enough to get the results we need.
“Don’t forget the boy (Martin) Odegaard as well, (Mohamed) Elyounoussi at Southampton. I know they’ve had a difficult end to the season, but these are all good players.
“They’ve got players playing in Serie A, they’ve got players playing in the top leagues all over Europe. As have Georgia. And so do we. Fergie (Lewis Ferguson) scored again yesterday, for example.
“I think you have to deal with the team and the individuals within the team. You have to rely on your team structure, your team shape to limit the chances, and defend well from wherever you are on the pitch. Hopefully, higher up the pitch.
“Hopefully we can have the ball more than we had against Spain, and hopefully we can control the game a little bit more that way.
“So, yeah, you have got to recognise the talents of Haaland, but there are a few other decent players in the Norway set-up and Georgia have got a few decent players as well.
“We are expecting two tough games, and we certainly won’t only be focusing on one player.
“We will respect the opposition as we always do, and hopefully we can get the right amount of points.”
*Steve Clarke was speaking at a McDonald’s Fun Football session in George Square as part of the Scottish FA’s Week of Football, a week-long series of celebratory events that will shine a light on the clubs, schools, bodies, volunteers and fans across Scotland who make football possible to mark the association’s 150th anniversary.
