Alexander Hleb fears he may never qualify for the finals of a major tournament with Belarus.
The Arsenal midfielder is on international duty with this country at the moment. Over the course of the next week, they face two beatable teams — Luxembourg and then Albania — however even a full six points will not see them reach Euro 2008.
The 26-year-old playmaker has been the leading light of his national side since 2002 and helped the Under-21s to the finals of the European Championships in 2004. However success at senior status has eluded them.
“I really want to qualify for a major finals,” he said. “Your life in football goes so quickly and I worry when we lose that I might never manage it — but I hope we can make the step up.
“Bernd Stange is a good coach, he’s got a lot of experience but in Belarus it’s difficult to form a very good team. A lot of our players play in Belarus and it’s not a great standard — when they jump straight from there to international football they can be a bit nervous and also don’t have the quality.
“I try to help him and I hope he can help us qualify for the next major finals. We have some good systems in place but still have plenty to learn and will need time before we can achieve what we want.”