Belarus boss Carlos Alos laments playing behind closed doors against Scotland

Belarus head coach Carlos Alos is no fan of having to play behind closed doors and would like nothing more than to see the Tartan Army inside the ZTE Arena for Monday’s World Cup qualifier against Scotland.

As a UEFA sanction for the support shown by Belarus to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Scotland’s second Group C fixture against Belarus will take place at an empty venue in Zalaegerszeg on Monday night.

Belarus lost 5-1 to Greece in their qualifying opener on Friday, when the Scots and Denmark fought out a goalless draw in Copenhagen, and over 100 Scotland fans are believed to be travelling to the Hungarian city to be close to Steve Clarke’s side for the second match of the September double-header.

Belarus have previously played home games with no spectators in the Serbian city Novi Sad and Hungarian capital Budapest, and Alos is not in favour of the situation.

He said: “I don’t want to interfere in the things, I’m not a lawyer. But for me, I talk in general, not in particular… we play for supporters.

“This is the main goal of football, this is the objective in football, to play for supporters, and of course no-one likes to play with closed doors, but I don’t want to go into particular situations like that.

“Of course we want to play with supporters, we feel better, we are professionals, so this is normal for us.

“What is abnormal is to play with closed doors, this is my opinion, this is my feeling, and I’m sure it’s the feeling of any player who will be on the field (on Monday).”

Belarus have drawn all three of the matches they have had to play behind closed doors in the ZTE Arena, failing to get the better of Bulgaria, Northern Ireland and Luxembourg in the Nations League, and the Spanish boss sees no advantage to having experience of the stadium.

Alos said: “I don’t think that this is an advantage, because for us it is much better to try to prepare the home games at home, in our facilities, to play with our people.

“We can’t forget that we play for supporters, and we cannot have this, so I don’t see any advantage for us.

“This is not good, we have always travelled, not easy travels, never play at home, never time to be in our home to prepare some games.

“I don’t see advantage in these circumstance.

“I cannot say anything about the last match, it was a bad result for us, a bad game, but again (on Monday) everything will start from scratch, and our task is to make the players forget the result in Greece and switch to the next opponent, and believe in themselves again.

“Obviously, we started the qualification campaign not in a good way, we didn’t compete well this match, we know about that. After a defeat like that it’s not easy for anyone.

“But we have to focus on the next game and to be ready to compete better (on Monday), because if we compete in the same way it will be difficult for us.”