Steve Clarke urges Scotland to seize chance of Euro 2020 qualification
Steve Clarke has warned his Scotland players not to rely on future opportunities to qualify for major tournaments ahead of Thursday night’s European Championships play-off final against Serbia.
The Scotland boss admitted he looks back on his career with disappointment because the team never qualified for a big tournament.
„I think it’s always been the dream, even for the years of failure to qualify,“ Clarke said.
„It’s always there, that dream is always there when you start out every campaign you think ‘right, this is going to be the one’.
„The team at various times has been close to qualification but hasn’t quite managed to get it over the line.“
Clarke’s recollections are ones Scotland fans know all too well in the years since they last qualified for a major tournament in 1998.
From the torment of defeats to the Netherlands and Italy in the mid-2000s to more recent woes, Scotland will be desperate to lay those shortcomings to rest, hold their nerve, and make history.
Last month’s Euros qualification semi-final against Israel was nerve-shredding enough, going all the way to spot-kicks before Scotland sealed a trip to Serbia for a winner-takes-all clash.
Now Clarke hopes his players can thrive on the big stage and do what he himself was not able to experience as a player.
„This squad, this team, this group of players is close again and this time hopefully we can get it over the line,“ Clarke said.
„I had a good football career, I managed to win a few good trophies at the end of it. I played a lot of good matches at the highest level in both Scotland and England.
„But ultimately you’re always left with that little bit of disappointment that as a player I didn’t manage to play in a major tournament so for these lads, it’s the same.
„It’s not to think about (if) there’ll be another chance in two years’ time because maybe there won’t be.“
‘This is a frustrated generation of fans’
James McFadden echoed Clarke’s sentiments as his own memories of being involved in similar tense occasions for Scotland are surely bittersweet.
The 37-year-old spoke from personal experience when he said these Scotland players cannot afford to pass up another golden opportunity at qualification.
A young McFadden was breaking through when he was picked to start against the Netherlands in November 2003 by then-Scotland boss Berti Vogts.
Scotland won the first leg at home 1-0 thanks to McFadden’s strike but were hammered 6-0 in the return tie to miss out on a place at Euro 2004.
Four years later, McFadden and Scotland were again left disappointed after losing 2-1 to Italy in November 2007 in the final stages of Euro 2008 qualification.
„When I was playing and we would have these games, the Holland game I think I was 20, you just assume it is going to happen every campaign – you are going to get a play-off, you are going to get close.
„And then you go to the Italy game, it turned into a one-off game. If we won that game we would have managed to qualify. It didn’t happen like that.
„There is a frustrated generation that haven’t seen Scotland at a major tournament. There are also the generations before that who are used to seeing Scotland and the disappointment of not reaching a major finals is there for everyone.
„I just hope that the players can turn up, give it their best, and really play the way that they have been in the last three games, give us a good chance of qualifying and try and give the whole country a lift.“
Brown: Qualification would lift nation
The last man to take Scotland to a major finals was Craig Brown more than two decades ago and he has labelled their clash with Serbia the country’s biggest game since.
Brown led Scotland to Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup during his time in charge and said qualification would be a „terrific achievement“ for Clarke and his players.
„It’s the most important game in the last two decades for Scotland,“ said Brown, who led Scotland between 1993 and 2001.
„It would be a terrific achievement I think to get to the finals and it lifts the whole nation. It makes a huge difference to the game of football.
„Steve Clarke has got the team playing very well in recent games. It will be an extremely difficult fixture. I looked at their [Serbia] last team and several of them play in Serie A. You don’t play in Serie A unless you’re a top-class player.
„Of course they’ve got one in England, in Fulham. Aleksandar Mitrovic the striker, and of course Dusan Tadic might play or might not from Ajax. They’re all from top clubs so we’ve got a very difficult assignment but it’s one I think we can just about do.“
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