The Scots have enjoyed a better start to the campaign and sit top of Group I following a draw in Lithuania and a last-gasp win over Liechtenstein at Hampden.

In contrast, the Czechs endured a shock defeat to Lithuania in their opening match, leaving them joint bottom of the section ahead of this clash in Prague.

"Scotland certainly have a mental advantage," said Bilek.

"They have four points from their matches against Lithuania and Liechtenstein, while we all know what happened in our last match.

"Now we are under enormous pressure and that is the big difference from the friendly game [against Scotland] in March.

"We need to get a result. Are we the favourites for the match? Well, if we played in Scotland they would be the favourites. We need to win and that makes a psychological advantage for Scotland."

Czech Republic have yet to decide their team line-up to face Craig Levein's men but there will be changes from their opener.

Bilek added: "There are still some question marks, but 95% of the team is clear. The final decisions will be taken on Friday.

"The most important thing for me is that the whole team is good. They are healthy and well motivated.

"We were upset in the Lithuania game and that has provided us with even more desire to put in a good performance against Scotland.

"We'll have to make some changes from the Lithuania game because Milan Baros is among the players injured.

"As for the formation, it may be similar although there might be some minor changes in midfield.

"We need to win points and improve our position in the group. This is one of the climaxes in my role as national team coach."

"I'm not suggesting our approach to the Lithuania game was wrong or lacking motivation," said skipper Tomas Rosicky.

"On the contrary, we were pretty motivated and that will certainly be the case in this game.

"Is this the most difficult time in my national team career? Not really. I'm not suggesting these are easy times because the situation is quite serious.

"But, for me, the worst time was in 2002 when we lost the additional qualifier for the World Cup."