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Alexander Hleb has been saying that if Scotland can beat Belarus on Saturday, he expects the Scots to pip Norway to the play off place in World Cup qualifying group 5. And it sounds like he expects Scotland to do just that, because the Belarus squad is not a happy place to be right now.
"I have to admit there are some problems within the team. Good results may come only if there's a unity between players and coach. I can't say that this unity exists in the Belarus team at the moment."
Belarus looked like they had a chance of qualification early on, but recent results have scuppered them.
Hleb goes on, "I really wanted to make these World Cup finals, especially because they were in Germany - a country I know so well [Hleb joined Arsenal from Stuttgart]. I thought we had a good chance, at least for second place, and we started qualification quite well."
"Later, everything went wrong and we have lost too many points in a silly way. To be honest, after the 2-0 defeat in Moldova, all I felt was ashamed of myself. That's why I said sorry to all the fans. You can lose but not to such an opponent as Moldova." [Gratuitous note to England coach and players: Moldova are 36 places below Belarus in the FIFA rankings, Northern Ireland are 90 places below England]
"Now we have lost 4-1 to Italy too, but we still have two games ahead of us and will give our best."
Despite all this negativity, he does also say he expects Belarus to beat Norway on Wednesday, which is why he reckons Scotland can do it.
There's no denying he's an honest chap, as also evidenced on his official website, which he seems to be updating pretty regularly (and in his own words too by the looks of it, so we can track the progress of his English along with his football).
Alex's younger brother Viacheslav is also playing against Scotland on Friday, for Belarus U21s. And if he does well, it seems that he could end up playing for Hearts. "My brother would give everything possible to move to the Scottish Premier League", says Alex. Blimey! Well, perhaps it's understandable, given their background. For a fascinating insight into that, and his attitude to the Arsenal, see this interview in the Guardian.
And check out our Alexander Hleb page for more info on the midfielder who's looking more and more like another Wenger master-stroke. I'm not sure I've seen a player slot into the team more quickly and effectively probably since Freddie Ljungberg. But coming off the bench with 10 minutes to go against Man Utd to get booked and score a cheeky goal against Schmeichel, that's a hard act to follow.
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