Scotland manager Steve Clarke has admitted he was unaware that pop superstar Katy Perry was staying at the same hotel as his squad ahead of Thursday's World Cup qualifier against Greece. Perry, who is in the midst of her Lifetimes Tour, performed at Glasgow's OVO Hydro this week. Clarke, when informed, said: 'I've heard the name and I'm sure if you played me a couple of her songs I'd say, "I recognise that one". But I couldn't name you one of her songs — that's no disrespect to Katy. But I'm from a different generation.'
Clarke's focus is firmly on the match at Hampden, where Scotland will seek to avenge a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Greece in March during the Nations League play-off. That result, which came after a 1-0 win in Piraeus in the first leg, was one of the worst performances of Clarke's tenure. 'Play better,' he said bluntly when asked how to rectify the display. 'In the last game, we gave away goals which are not really in our make-up. We don't normally defend and give goals away like we did.'
The manager acknowledged his own role in the defeat, suggesting he should have made more changes to the starting lineup. 'We had just been to Greece and won the game. I spoke about it at the time — maybe I should have made two or three more changes just to freshen the squad up a little bit. They made six changes and looked a little bit fresher on the night than we did. That's not the case this time. We have pretty much as strong a squad as we can have and the lads will be ready for it.'
Scotland have started the qualifying campaign well, with a draw against Denmark and a win over Belarus. Clarke stressed the importance of continuing that form. 'We have given ourselves a great platform with the first two away games and we want to cement that by winning the two home games.' He dismissed the idea that a defeat would eliminate Greece, noting that 'nobody in this room would have thought that Denmark would go to Greece and win 3-0. So, it's a section which has shown that there can be some strange results.'
