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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Fletcher & Hutton start for Scots

Scotland v Czech Republic

  • Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow
  • Date: 3 September 2011
  • Kick-off: 1500 BST
  • Coverage: BBC Radio Scotland 1400 BST, Highlights, BBC 1 Scotland 2215 BST
Craig Levein Levein says the match against Czech Republic is the most important of his reign

Scotland manager Craig Levein has included Darren Fletcher and Alan Hutton in his starting line-up to face the Czech Republic.

Charlie Adam is also given his first competitive start, with Kenny Miller playing as a lone striker.

National team captain Fletcher has featured in only two competitive games since March, the same month as Hutton's last match at any level.

The visitors are without their first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech.

With Scotland five points behind the Czech Republic in Euro 2012 qualifying Group I, Levein believes this is his most important match since taking over as Scotland manager in December 2009.

SCOTLAND STARTING XI

McGregor, Hutton, Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley, Naismith, Fletcher, Adam, Brown, Morrison, Miller

His side need to take maximum points from the games against the Czechs and Lithuania on Tuesday night if they are to have a realistic chance of winning a play-off place as runners-up to runaway group leaders Spain.

"We've stressed the importance of home matches," said Levein. "There are a lot of players in this team capable of winning matches.

"I do believe that nine points from the next few matches will be enough to take us into the play-off, and that has always been the case.

"This is the game that brings with it the most pressure; and that's something that I've missed. With club football I got that every week and for me this is the most exciting part of international football.

We will go into this game and do absolutely everything in our power to win it

Craig Levein Scotland manager

"We're ready to play. We will go into this game and do absolutely everything in our power to win it."

Hutton, who joined Aston Villa from Tottenham this week, is deployed at right-back, Sunderland's Phil Bardsley switches to the left while Gary Caldwell is partnered by Christophe Berra in central defence in front of goalkeeper Allan McGregor.

Scott Brown, James Morrison and Steven Naismith join Adam and skipper Fletcher in a five-man midfield in support of Miller.

The Czechs, who have not yet named their starting line-up, are at near-full strength but are faced with a goalkeeping dilemma due to Cech's absence through injury.

Of the three goalkeepers in Michal Bilek's squad, only Jaroslav Drobny has any caps with Ales Hruska and Jan Lastuvka untested at international level.

But Czech sports manager Vladimir Smicer believes that, in Hamburg's Drobny and Dnipro's Lastuvka, they have capable deputies for the Chelsea star.

"Of course it is a worry when you know your best goalkeeper is not available," he said.

"We have two other guys who can step up and hopefully take their chance."

Scotland starting line-up: McGregor, Hutton, Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley, Naismith, Fletcher (captain), Adam, Brown, Morrison, Miller.

Substitutes (from): Gilks, Marshall (goalkeepers), Crainey, Hanley, Wilson (all defenders), Bannan, Cowie, Dorrans, Forrest, Robson, Snodgrass (all midfielders), Goodwillie, Mackail-Smith (both forwards).

Czech Republic squad: Jaroslav Drobny, Jan Lastuvka, Ales Hruska (all goalkeepers), Zdenek Pospech, Jan Rajnoch, Tomas Sivok, Theo Gebre Selassie, Roman Hubnik, Daniel Pudil, Petr Jiracek, Michal Kadlec (all defenders), Tomas Rosicky (captain), Tomas Hubschman, Daniel Kolar, Jaroslav Plasil, Kamil Vacek, Jan Rezek, Vaclav Pilar, Milan Petrzela (all midfielders), Milan Baros, David Lafata, Tomas Pekhart (all forwards).

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