Scotland vs Poland preview: Scots well aware they need to stop red-hot Robert Lewandowski

Not since the days when Dariusz Dziekanowski was the verbally-challenging darling of Parkhead has a Polish name tripped so often from Scottish tongues as that of Robert Lewandowski. Bayern Munich’s fearsome striker has been the talk of Glasgow this week but the stern task facing the national side at Hampden is not only to stop Europe’s most lethal hitman but also to make a telling impact at the other end from a roster of strikers with a collective international tally of 12 goals – or as many as Lewandowski has reaped in his last four games.

Steven Fletcher, scorer of four goals for Scotland, three of them against Gibraltar, remains the most likely frontman for a game which Gordon Strachan’s men need to win if hopes of making a first finals since 1998 are to remain alive into Sunday’s final qualifier, an international gimme against Fletcher’s favourites, Gibraltar.

Scotland squat four points behind Ireland, who in turn trail the Poles by two. Scotland’s limited hopes of securing a play-offs berth lie in Ireland having to face Germany before heading to Warsaw on Sunday. Beat the Poles at Hampden and Poland will need something against the Irish while Scotland are banging in the goals against Gibraltar on the Algarve. So goes the theory. Who will lead the line is a question with which Strachan and his backroom staff have wrestled all week.

“That’s been the one thing we have been thinking about for the longest time,” said Strachan, who will be without the injured Ikechi Anya. Scotland’s manager has consistently favoured Fletcher through this campaign and with a rare goal crowning the Sunderland striker’s best performance of the season against West Ham on Saturday he is in pole position to start again.

Four of Scotland’s strikers scored at the weekend – Fletcher, Jordan Rhodes, Chris Martin and Leigh Griffiths – but they come nowhere near matching Lewandowski’s feats.

Fletcher’s last dozen goals have been spread over two years – Lewandowski’s came in two weeks. Everywhere the Pole turns he leaves defenders, and his Scottish counterparts, in his free-scoring wake, not least that cameo of cameo’s against Wolfsburg, coming off the bench to score five in nine minutes.

“It’s inexplicable,” said Lewandowski. “In football you can’t sometimes explain things. It happened so fast that it was impossible to think about the result [against Wolfsburg]. This is the beauty of this sport. Sometimes it’s a very unpredictable sport and also painful but that’s why people love it so much. It’s the instinct and there’s no time for thinking. The ball flies towards you, it’s your body and you’re doing it.”

Last month his similarly instinctive Bayern team-mate Thomas Müller did so much to damage Scotland, but Lewandowski does not have the international support Müller does – Poland are good, “improved” acknowledged Strachan, but not that good. What will suit the visitors is Scotland’s need to attack. Poland have pace and are adept at counter-attacking with Jakub Blaszczykowski a fine creator for Lewandowski.

Scotland were well worth their draw in Warsaw – in which Lewandowski endured a physically uncomfortable evening against Gordon Greer – and the focus has once more been on the collective in training this week, or “the Scotland way” as Scott Brown put it.

“We need to muck in together,” said Brown. “We have to defend and attack well as a team. We have got to go into this game as positive as possible and believe we can get to the Euros.”