Tuesday 29 August 2017 08:34, UK
Scotland have to show Lithuania the same level of respect as they did England to be successful in Vilnius on Friday, according to former Hearts and Everton full-back Gary Naysmith.
Gordon Strachan's side currently sit fourth in World Cup Qualifying Group F, six points behind England and four behind Slovakia in second place.
Scotland slumped to a disappointing 1-1 draw against Lithuania at Hampden in October, which was then followed by defeats to Slovakia and England.
At his squad announcement earlier in October, Strachan admitted the need to take all six points from the games against Lithuania and Malta this coming week, which are both live on Sky Sports Football, if Scotland are to stand any chance of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Naysmith, who earned 46 caps for Scotland, said: "We have to treat Lithuania with the same respect as we did England. I had a little look back and I think Scotland have played Lithuania eight or nine times and there's only twice that there's been more than a goal of a difference in the game.
"But if Scotland do go and put a similar type of performance with and without the ball as they did against England I am sure we can get a positive result.
"Four points isn't going to be enough."
"So you may find that if the game is evenly balanced with 20 minutes to go then Gordon will really go for it and try get the three points rather than settling for one."
Naysmith recorded one win and two defeats against Lithuania in his time with Scotland and knows the difficulty of facing the so-called 'smaller' nations.
"The travelling is not too bad, it's not too far a journey but it is a difficult venue to go there," he said.
"They were always difficult games when I was involved with the national team, whether it was Belarus, Lithuania or the sort of teams like that. They were always very close. They are technically very good and you always generally find that they seem to be a bit quicker than our players for some reason."
Celtic were drawn against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League group earlier this week, and the former Hearts defender believes the core of Friday's team have to come from Brendan Rodgers' squad.
He said: "The people that are in form playing for their clubs, the Celtic lads, are doing ever so well domestically and on the European front. I expect they will all be big players.
"I think Craig Gordon will play, Scott Brown will be a key player and we've got great players especially on the left-hand side with Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney. They can get forward and give you great width. Personally, I hope that some way Gordon can fit the two of them in the starting team.
"I think Leigh Griffiths will play and he [Strachan] has been playing most of the games with just one-up. So I can't see Gordon really changing that. It seems a system the team are happy with and that Gordon likes playing."
