World Cup qualifying Group C: Scotland v Denmark
Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Tuesday, 18 November Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
The burden of history is everywhere you look.
Hampden Park, Glasgow. A footballing mausoleum of memories and moments, both awe-inspiring and harrowing.
The walls of the place carry the spirit of the greats. Sir Kenny Dalglish dancing elegantly through defences. Denis Law with arms raised in trademark fashion. An image of James McFadden with the ball hanging in the Parisian air and a bamboozled Mickael Landreau somewhere in the distance.
Take a walk deeper inside and the broad bowl of the national stadium opens up. Once it was a concrete cathedral that held the hopes of teams and fans setting off with dreams of actually trying to win a World Cup.
Now, lying thick and still under the cover of plastic seats, the cavernous emptiness of the place mirrors the void left since it is modern reincarnation in the late 1990s.
Not since Hampden’s redevelopment have Scotland earned the right to go to a World Cup. The last time it was achieved, a lap of honour took place around a partially built Celtic Park.
History. That’s what Scotland have when it comes to the greatest stage of all.
- 19 hours ago
- 22 hours ago
To the uninitiated, signs of stars aligning are there in the crisp Glaswegian sky.
Scotland have tripped, stumbled and stuttered their way through this campaign with all the poise of a sumo wrestler on Strictly Come Dancing, but have managed to carve out positive results.
They survived a first-half onslaught in Copenhagen to earn a valuable point. Battered at home by Greece? Somehow Steve Clarke’s side claimed victory. They made hard work of it, but Belarus were beaten twice, too.
Even in chaotic defeat in Athens on Saturday, Scotland were rescued as Denmark inexplicably were held by Belarus, meaning a home win on Tuesday evening and immortality – a place in the World Cup – is theirs.
Yet, this Scotland team is masters of the dark arts of unpredictability. For most of the time, you’re just not sure what you’re going to get.
For a support who adore their football team, there is no room for sentiment here.
Romance has been eroded away for the Tartan Army. Nothing is written in the stars for Scotland.
Through the history of the nation’s football team, there have been moments where you’d think the footballing gods would say “they’ve suffered enough, let’s give them a break”.
Going out of the 1974 World Cup without losing a game. Exiting Euro ’96 in the most cruel fashion. Losing to Brazil by a hapless own goal and then, after raising hopes by drawing with Norway, being demolished by Morocco. Beating England at Wembley, but not by enough, in a European Championship play-off the following year.
Then there are recent examples of trauma after actually getting to two European Championships. A dispiriting choke in the first game being followed by a credible draw in the second to keep hopes alive, only to then go out with a whimper in the final group match.
Clarke hauls Scotland into the spotlight
That in itself is a compliment of sorts to Clarke, who has hauled Scotland out of the international wilderness to be within touching distance of going to USA, Canada and Mexico next summer.
Since the late and magnificent Craig Brown trudged off the park in St Etienne in the summer of 1998, six different Scotland managers tried and failed to get the nation to a major tournament.
Play-offs came and went. So too did the international careers of many players who deserved more.
Then came Clarke in 2019. The man who had thrived at Kilmarnock in his native Ayrshire after a successful career on and off the pitch in England took the national team from losing in Kazakhstan to back-to-back Euros.
He did so with a blend of Brown’s hard-to-beat mantra, an emerging crop of talent and a dollop of landmark results.
Spain beaten at Hampden. Norway turned over in their own backyard. Serbia outdone on penalties five years ago. Croatia upstaged in Glasgow.
Scott McTominay, John McGinn, Billy Gilmour, Andy Robertson. Some old and some new, but players with reputations and pedigrees to match, who have helped haul Scotland from the shadows of irrelevance into the spotlight.
That ascension has brought scrutiny. Some of it harsh, some of it deserved.
In the 2022 play-off semi-final against Ukraine, Clarke’s team disintegrated on an occasion, just like this one, that meant so much.
Two Euros have drifted by without a glove being laid on any of their opponents. Just three goals were scored across six games.
These examples stand as warnings from the past, but they should be used as motivators for the here and now. As if any were needed.
The moral of all of this is that Scotland have so often failed to grasp the opportunity that they have clawed out for themselves. The moment has slipped away.
On Tuesday, this group has the chance to reach a World Cup. No strings, no what ifs.
Denmark have been at five of the past seven World Cups but, just like their hosts, vulnerability is lurking.
There is a weakness that was exposed by Belarus and which must be ruthlessly pounced upon. Conversely, signs of an intensity in Scotland’s second-half display in Greece surely must be replicated from the start in Glasgow.
There is an overwhelming sense that Scotland’s fate on Tuesday does not depend on what the handy Danes do, but what Clarke’s team can conjure up and rouse from within themselves.
The quality is there. The incentive is there. The opportunity is there.
Related topics
- Football
- Scotland Men’s Football Team
