Berra out to learn from Brazil

Berra: Looking to learn

Christophe Berra believes facing Brazil will help him to improve as a Premier League player.

The defender is relishing the prospect of turning out for Scotland at Emirates Stadium on Sunday in a glamorous international friendly against one of the world's best sides.

However, he is also determined to use the experience as a valuable learning curve which could aid Wolves' battle to beat the drop.

Mick McCarthy's side are embroiled in a tense survival scrap but Berra hopes they will prove strong enough to pull clear of trouble.

He said: "International football is played at a different pace, although you do get games like that in the Premier League.

"But we play against international-quality strikers every week so it can only be good for me as an individual to have this sort of experience.

"I'm only 26 and I'm improving all the time - I'm not at my prime yet and centre-halves can play at the top level until they're 34, 35 and 36.

"I want to carry on learning and improving my overall game and playing in these games like Brazil is only going to help me."

Difficult task

After a couple of days of team bonding in the Spanish resort of La Manga, including several rounds of golf as Craig Levein and his coaching staff pitted their wits against the players, the hard work now begins in earnest as training gets under way.

Berra insists no one in the Scotland camp is under any illusions about the size of task they face this weekend.

He added: "We're not kidding ourselves - it's going to be a difficult game because they're a better team than us with better individuals, but we want to continue our progress.

"It's a learning experience but we'll be trying to win the game and do well for ourselves.

"After the game we can think of whether Brazil were good or so-and-so player did well. First and foremost we have to concentrate on our own game."

A positive performance, at least, is what the Scots want to continue the momentum generated by wins over the Faroe Islands and Northern Ireland in their last two games.

Bright future

Berra told Wolves' official website: "We beat Northern Ireland and played very well in that game, creating a lot of chances.

"The future looks bright - we've got a young squad but we're all of a similar age and hopefully we can all gel together.

"Games are coming thick and fast for all of us at the moment but we've got to take them one at a time.

"From a personal point of view, I want to play for Scotland and we want to improve on how we finished off against Northern Ireland when we won 3-0.

"We played well and we've got a young squad of a good age with good footballers which we want to carry on improving."