Scotland are not scared of red-hot Lewandowski, insists Gordon Strachan

Meanwhile, Strachan, whose contract as Scotland manager expires next month, will leave negotiations about his future until after the Poland and Gibraltar games.

The Scots are in a poor position in Group D – sitting six points behind Poland in second and four behind the Republic of Ireland in third.

Scotland sit fourth in Group D going into their final two fixtures against the Poles on 8 October and Gibraltar in Portugal three days later.

You will understand if I just want to concentrate on the game. You can’t become emotional in a game of football.

“But I am over the moon with it”. Emotional players can cause you bother and until now and I am sure it will continue, we have been focused rather than emotional.

“We can only deal with the games we are involved in”.

“I texted him and I told him: ‘Life is like that.’ But he is one of the people that decides and determines where he goes in his career”.

“The whole nation was disappointed (after last two results), which is understandable”.

“It’s the same thing for us against Poland”.

The former Scotland midfielder will wait until after the qualification campaign is over before he considers his future as national team boss.

“I am enjoying what I do”, he said. “I think we’re as good as Poland and the Republic of Ireland, that’s for sure”, said Strachan. “I just continue and see where I end up”. “Most of us know if you are a good player you’ll get bumped now and then”, Strachan said.

“We will speak about it once it (the campaign) is out of the way”.

“With most top players somewhere along the line they’ll do something in a game and that’s going to happen”. I just live for the day, or the next game coming up or whatever. We’ll talk about it after this campaign, and hopefully it has another few months to run yet.

Charlie Mulgrew is also included despite being labelled a “major doubt” by his club manager, Ronny Deila.

Shinnie, 24, has shone in midfield for Aberdeen this season, despite usually playing at left-back, while 26-year-old Wolverhampton Wanderers man McDonald returns to the squad a year after his first call-up. I have known about Graeme for a couple of years now. He was getting asked about playing against all these big, tall players and the sort of problems we might face.