Motherwell ace Tony Watt optimistic about Scotland's chances against Israel tonight
Motherwell striker Watt, 26, whose cap came in a 1-0 friendly win over the Czech Republic in a 2016 friendly in Prague, was assessing our hopes in the Euro 2020 qualifying semi-final play-off against Israel at Hampden Park.
Victory in that one will see the Scots through to face either Norway or Serbia away in the play-off final on Thursday, November 12, with a spot in next summer’s finals at stake.
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Hide Ad“My international record is flattering,” Watt told the Times and Speaker.
“I didn’t do absolutely anything to deserve that.
“But I think we’ve got a good enough team now. I think we’ve got a lot of quality.
“It just depends on how the game goes.
“In football, anything can happen and it’s a winnable one, yeah.
“If we get through that, the final is a tricky one. What the big boy Haaland (Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland) did to Northern Ireland (in a recent 5-1 win in Belfast), a lot of the (Motherwell) boys came back from international duty and raved about him.
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Hide Ad“They will both be tough. Israel won’t be an easy one and then obviously there’s the next one, but in a one-off game, you can beat anybody.”
On the European club arena this season, Watt scored in the Steelmen’s 5-1 thumping of Glentoran and also netted in the 2-2 draw and subsequent 3-0 penalty shootout success against Coleraine in the opening two Europa League qualifying rounds.
But he was unable to stop Hapoel Be’er Sheva inflicting a 3-0 away defeat on ’Well in the next round, with the Israelis subsequently reaching the group stages with a 1-0 win over Czech cracks Viktoria Plzen last Thursday.
“I don’t think you can look back and be sad about anything,” Watt said.
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Hide Ad“I think we gave it a good crack and we were unfortunate. It shows how good a team Hapoel are to go through (against Plzen).
“On the night, I thought we had a good chance and unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
“I felt that 3-0 was a flattering score for them. I think anybody watching the game did.
“After they went 1-0 up, we went chasing the game and we got a bit unfortunate.”