Scotland are not scheduled to cross swords with the matadors of Spain for another month.

However, the world champions are already very much in the mind of Craig Levein.

And the national team manager wants Xavi, Iniesta and Torres to be in the thoughts of his players tonight when they run out to meet Liechtenstein at Hampden.

To be more specific, Levein wants the attitude of the men who crushed the Group I minnows 4-0 on Friday to be what his players focus on emulating.

His reasoning is simple – if it is good enough for the stars who lifted the World Cup just over two months ago to role their sleeves up and do the ‘dirty’ part of the game, it should not be beneath the players in dark blue.

Levein is wary of any knock-it-around-and-the-win-is-ours approach infecting his squad.

Sure, Liechtenstein have lost 68 of the 81 internationals they have played. And anything other than a wide margin of victory for Scotland would add to the criticism still lingering from the opening goalless draw in Lithuania.

But Levein is talking about a mindset, a default position which he is insisting his players adopt.

His reasoning is this: If that basic work ethic is woven into the DNA of the players, it will not matter if they are lining up against the world champions or the minnows of Europe.

Tonight will give him a good indication of whether this message is being absorbed.

Levein explained: “To be a successful team, everyone has to realise they have a part to play, not just when we have the ball, but when we don’t have it.

“I watched a DVD of Spain against Liechtenstein and every player in the Spanish team works their socks off. Every player.

“Everyone thinks they are a fantastic football team. But they work just as hard, or harder, than most teams, and it is no coincidence they are European and world champions.

“If it’s good enough for them, then it’s certainly good enough for us.”

He went on: “The most important bit about a team is how it works together and how they work for each other.

“From that realisation, we’ve got a chance of doing anything. If we don’t do that, then we leave ourselves open to be beaten by anybody.”

Levein is looking long-term with this group, but understands that, short-term, results are what will keep them all in a job.

His philosophy is not an option. It is an essential, and the manager wants it to be the unspoken creed.

“We’re trying to instil something into the team that I don’t need to speak to them about,” he said.

“That’s the whole point, that we don’t need to keep coming back to the same thing all the time.

“This just becomes a given. This is what happens. It’s part of building a foundation.”

From which he hopes something lasting can emerge.

However, the hard graft has to be put in if the rewards are to be seen, and Levein continued: “The hardest thing to do in football sometimes is the dirty work, the stuff that stops the opposition from playing.

“If we can get that into our game, that it just happens, then we can concentrate on other things.”

In tonight’s case, the Tartan Army hope the ‘other things’ will be boosting our goal difference.

Whether it is because it is his first competitive game at Hampden, or a hangover from the criticism which followed the failure to score in Lithuania, Levein is preaching caution and patience.

He said: “I don’t want people to get carried away in the hype that we should be scoring loads of goals.

“I’d love it if we did, and, trust me, if we can get a couple of early goals then that’s a possibility.

“But we can’t be disrespectful to Liechtenstein. This a side who recently went to Iceland and drew.

“They were in England’s qualification group fairly recently, and it was 0-0 at Wembley after something like an hour.

“So this is not a team who are amateurish. They are well drilled, very well organised. Trust me, they’re a decent side.

“My job is to try and explain to the players that this is not just a case of turning up and thinking we are far superior to them, because we are not.

“We have to do our jobs properly, and we might have to be patient. I have to stress that. They had a hard game on Friday against Spain and it might be that it takes an hour to see any tiredness develop in them.”