Scotland midfielder Ryan Christie says his side will make the trip to Israel with a point to prove in tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier.
The Scots are aiming to record their first victory of the Group F campaign, which they started with a 2-2 draw at home to Austria on Thursday.
Tomorrow’s Tel Aviv encounter will be the sixth meeting between the sides since 2018, with Israel having proven a tricky opponent during that sequence despite being ranked 39 places lower than the Scots in 87th in the world.
Scotland have only won one of those matches in 90 minutes, although they defeated Willibald Ruttensteiner’s side on penalties last October en-route to qualifying for this summer’s European Championships.
In the most recent meeting between the teams in November, Israel ran out 1-0 winners in the Nations League.
Celtic midfielder Christie says the Scots are desperate to lay down a marker against their opponents, who fell to a 2-0 loss against Denmark on Thursday.
Inverness-born Christie said: “We need to build up momentum. We feel we took a lot of positives out of Thursday night.
“We feel going over there that we owe them one.
“We beat them on penalties in the play-off, but they beat us across there in the last camp.
“We feel we are a better team than them and we need to go and prove it by getting three points.
“If we can get the three points and come back and take another three points against the Faroes, then it would be considered a very good camp.
“We feel there were plenty of positives from the Austria game. There are plenty of boys as well, if the manager wants to change things around.
“We are all buzzing for it and to get one over Israel.”
Despite failing to make a winning start to their section against Austria, Christie feels claiming a point from the jaws of defeat courtesy of John McGinn’s stunning 85th-minute overhead kick marks an encouraging start.
The 26-year-old added: “It could be a good point, especially if you look at the first half we didn’t really start too well.
“We changed shape and we got to grips with them. We ended the first half well.
“We went a goal dow,n but after we reacted to go 1-1, I fancied us to go on and win it.
“I felt we were controlling the game and their second goal was against the run of play.
“To be fair, it is a great header from their boy and then McGinn comes up with a little bit of magic.
😍 Super @jmcginn7 #SCOAUTpic.twitter.com/rmO3L4DZrw
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) March 25, 2021
“We definitely didn’t deserve to lose it I don’t think, so we are happy with the point.
“It is a good start to the campaign for us.”
Christie says the strength in depth at Clarke’s disposal is ever improving, which he felt was evidenced by the defensive changes which allowed Manchester United’s Scott McTominay to move into his natural central midfield position.
Christie added: “Scott was quality and reads the game so well. He is so strong and probably one of the most athletic guys I have ever played with.
“It is a bit of a dream when I am playing the hole to have people like that behind me.
“It is good when you have boys you can play anywhere. The last camp he was centre-half and now he was midfield on Thursday.
“We have plenty of players like that, so if everybody keeps chipping in then we will be fine.
“Everybody is desperate to play and nobody complains about anything.
“Scott was quality in the last camp at centre-half when we qualified.
“It is good people can move about and the boys have got the formation as well now and you can see that we have a much better shape about us.
“We just need to keep building and hopefully we can do that again on Sunday.”