Midfielder Matt Ritchie reckoned Scotland were always bound to encounter bumps on the road to Russia, but hopes Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Lithuania was the only one.
The national team has four points from two matches against the two lowest-seeded teams in Group F.
Saturday’s missed opportunity means Scotland must win in Slovakia to maintain a realistic chance of qualifying for their first major tournament since France 98, and Newcastle United player Ritchie wants to make sure there are no further slip-ups from his side.
Ritchie said: “We were never going to get through this group without dropping points and we’ve done that now.
“Saturday was a cup final for us and for them and, yes, we were the favourites and we expected to win.
“Nobody ever qualifies for a World Cup easily. You don’t do it by winning every game in the campaign – it just doesn’t work out that way.
“Hopefully, we can go to Slovakia and get the win. That’s the aim but this is a tough group and we came across a bump against Lithuania and we want to get back to winning ways. This is a long campaign. It isn’t all about Saturday’s game or the Slovakia game, but we want to pick up as many points as possible and we’ll go there planning for a victory and expecting one as well.”
Slovakia have yet to register a point in the group following defeats against England and Slovenia, despite being seeded second in the group.
Ritchie expects tonight’s opponents to be desperate to kickstart their campaign and says there can be no slackness from his side.
The 27-year-old added: “They will have the bit between their teeth and trying to put things right so it’s going to be a tough one for us.
“However, they’ll also be under a lot of pressure because they haven’t had a great start and they know that they need to get something from this one.
“The way we started against Lithuania meant that we didn’t get control of the game. We wanted to dominate a bit more but we weren’t quite good enough.
“Fortunately, we improved and in the second half we were probing in and around their box for long periods.
“We need to start more aggressively on Tuesday but we can’t afford to be too gung-ho. If we throw the kitchen sink at them then we can be caught on the counter and that nearly happened at Hampden when Lithuania had their chance to go 2-0 up.”
