Steve Clarke calls on Scotland to set up qualifying ‘cup final’

Steve Clarke has urged Scotland to set up a “cup final” against Denmark by securing a positive result away to Greece in their penultimate World Cup qualifier.

The Scots have 10 points after four Group C games but are behind the Danes on a goal difference of six which means that Clarke’s men, already guaranteed a play-off spot next March, likely need to take at least a point against the already-eliminated Greeks in Piraeus on November 15 to set up a shoot-out against Denmark three days later.

The Danes host pointless Belarus in their penultimate qualifier and are expected to take all three points before they come to Glasgow and the Scotland boss outlined his aims for the qualifying finale.

“I think we all need to remind ourselves that we would have been delighted to be in this position, coming into the last two games of the qualifying campaign, having already eliminated one of the major threats in the Greeks,” said Clarke, who drafted Lawrence Shankland, Scott Bain, Ross McCrorie and Josh Doig into his squad with Kieron Bowie and the injured Angus Gunn dropping out.

“So they can’t be involved in the play-off. They can’t be involved in the shake-up for first place.

“That doesn’t mean to say it’s not going to be a difficult game in Greece, because I’m sure they will be fired up to prove that they’re better than Scotland. But we’re in a good position.

“What we have to do is make sure we get the result we need in Greece to make the Denmark game here a cup final.

“I thought they (Greece) were pretty dangerous last month at certain times in the game (Scotland won 3-1).

“They’re a very good team. Will they be more fired up? I don’t think they’ll be more fired up. I think they’ll be just as fired up as they were here at Hampden.”

Clarke is relaxed about the loss through a knee injury of Gunn, who despite not playing for loan club Nottingham Forest, started the first four qualifiers.

Craig Gordon, 42, is back-up at Hearts after returning from injury while Liam Kelly is number two at Rangers.

Bain, 33, who won the last of his three caps in a 2-0 win away to San Marino in March,  2019, moved to Falkirk from Celtic in the summer after being back-up for several seasons

“It’s always a blow when somebody misses out with injury,” said Clarke, who revealed he will take the Scotland squad to Turkey for some warm-weather training ahead of the Greece game.

“Angus did well in the four games up till now.

“We were in the same position in September when Angus hadn’t been playing either. He went in and he didn’t do too badly.

“Like I said with the goalkeepers. It’s a different position, quite often they’re the number two or the number three.

“As long as you know you’ve got boys who train well, work well, they should be ready for the game, so that’s my thinking on that.

“Craig’s obviously got the amount of caps (81) that he’s got. So he’s never let his country down. Liam is an experienced goalkeeper.

“Scott Bain made a big decision to come out of Celtic and go and play regular first-team football which, now that he’s in the squad, is probably a reward for that decision.

“We’ll look at them in training. I will lean heavily on Chris Woods, my goalkeeping coach, and we’ll come to the decision and decide who starts.”