Scotland in the right mood for Georgia, says Strachan
LONDON (Reuters) - There is a feelgood mood among Scotland's players, coaching staff and fans that bodes well for Saturday's European Championship qualifier at home to Georgia, manager Gordon Strachan said.
Unusually, much of that optimism stems from a defeat.
In their opening Group D game away to the world champions Germany, the Scots were only beaten 2-1, equalising Thomas Mueller's first goal before he scored the winner.
It was their first loss for a year.
"The performances over the last year have allowed us to feel good," Strachan told a news conference on Friday.
"The players make me feel good, and confident. They've trained intensely and we're in a good place at the moment.
"We seem to be adding to the spring in the step of Scottish sports fans and that makes us happy."
Georgia lost their opening game 2-1 at home to Ireland, but Strachan described them as "a very good team who were unlucky not to get anything against the Republic."
The visitors have important players missing in Guram Kashia, a defender from Dutch club Vitesse, and Levan Mchedlidze of the Italian club Empoli.
The other teams in the group are Poland and Gibraltar, whose meeting last month ended in a 7-0 away win for the Poles.
(Writing by Steve Tongue; editing by Justin Palmer)
