Hleb wary of Scottish fight

Barcelona newcomer Alexander Hleb knows too much about the revival of Scotland's national team to take the friendly against Hibernian lightly. Hleb was victorious on his last visit to Scotland in a 1-0 win for Belarus at Hampden that ended the home side's hopes of reaching the 2006 World Cup. But the improvement of Scotland under Walter Smith midway through that campaign carried on into the Euro 2008 qualifiers. France and Ukraine could not repeat the Hampden success of Belarus and only a last-minute goal by Italy defender Christian Panucci ended Scotland's hopes. And Hleb believes that willingness to fight until the very end makes Scotland a threat. "Scotland are a very good team who are always fighting until the last minute," he said at Barcelona's St Andrews training camp. "Every year they are getting better and better.... [read full story]