Scotland may be facing what looks like the footballing equivalent of a “mission impossible”, playing world champions Germany in front of a 80,000-strong crowd in Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park.
However, Dundee boss Paul Hartley believes we have a chance of pulling off a shock result as we have the best manager he ever worked under as a player in charge of the national team.
Gordon Strachan was Hartley’s boss when the former midfielder was at Celtic and he has nothing but the highest respect for the way he went about his business as gaffer.
He said: “I think Gordon will have the boys fired up for the game. Since he has come in, there has been a great improvement within the squad and how they work.
“They couldn’t have a tougher game than one against the world champions, but I think Gordon will have his team set out to be difficult to beat.
“Hopefully, we can catch them in this first game. I think we have a good chance of getting a result on Sunday night.”
When asked what Strachan was like as a manager before a game, Hartley promptly replied: “Brilliant. He was a big influence on my career as a player.
“Even when I went into management I took a lot from how he worked as a manager.
“He is the best I have worked under. He is a fantastic coach and his man-management was great also.
“Players want to play for him and that’s a key thing. He knows how to set a team out and on the training ground he is absolutely terrific.”
When asked if he would ever phone his former boss up for advice, Hartley said: “Yes, if I had to. We had a good 20 minutes on Sunday after the Celtic game and he was impressed with how the team played, which was good to hear coming from a manager like Gordon.
“I respect him hugely. Even the way we try to train and work (at Dundee) is the way Gordon worked at Celtic.
“You take those wee bits into your own management.
“When I worked under him it was fantastic and I looked forward to going into training every day.”