Grigori Babayan: 'Scotland strong on the wing'
- What do you think about our group in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying competition?
- This is a very difficult group, at the same time it will be interesting to play against such strong rivals - teams of Belgium, Russia and Scotland. Now it is clear that the matches with these teams will cause great interest from Kazakhstani fans, so I hope for their support.
- The experts suppose that Belgium and Russia will fight for 1st and 2nd place. Do you agree with this opinion? And what do you think about the Scotland team?
- If we talk separately about the opponents, the team of Belgium is one of the strongest teams at the moment, great players perform for the team, good forwards, so they are definitely the favorites of our group. Russia, performed well at the 2018 World Cup, but, as the UEFA Nations League matches showed, it was easier for them to rise to this level than to hold on. Anyway they are also strong rivals. As for the Scotland national team, their footballers play in the Premier League of England. We are all waiting for a very interesting football year. I think we will also have lots of surprises.
- You were in the coaching staff of Astana when the capital team played against Celtic. What do you remember in those games?
- We played with Celtic twice. Both games were very exciting, despite the negative result. The club from Glasgow plays attacking football, Dembele, Sinclair, Griffiths and James Forrest, who is one of the leaders of the club and national team played then. Nevertheless, Astana showed that they could play and beat with such a rival.
- What do you think about the Scottish football?
- I managed to watch Scotland vs Albania, which they easily won with 4:0. In that match, it was clear that McLeish's players played in the similar style as Celtic - Scotland play a wide game with strong winger.
- What is your prediction for the game: what kind of football will the teams of Kazakhstan and Scotland show?
- I really do not like to make any predictions, but I can say one that, if the Kazakhstan national team play in a disciplined way, then they will be able to achieve a positive result. Last year, the national team showed that our players have a very big potential for a successful performance.
