Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Clarke strives to find Scotland’s next level
WHILE Scotland boss Steve Clarke has enjoyed the year past, he is never far from looking at the next challenge.
That will come in the shape of Ukraine, who visit Hampden Park at the end of March with the chance to get to a play-off final for the World Cup in Qatar.
Scotland’s form at the back end of the campaign helped make that prospect a reality, delivering six wins on the bounce to finish second in their qualifying group behind Denmark.
Clarke is optimistic for the challenge ahead, with Ukraine returning to the ground where they beat Sweden at this summer’s Euros.
“I think we can compete with Ukraine. For me it was a fair draw,” said Clarke.
“It’s a 50-50 game. They are a good team. I have had a little look at them briefly on video, not in-depth. They have good players and they are in a good way.
“They will come to Hampden and be relatively tough to beat. They have good quality players. We will need to be on our best behaviour in the game.
“That was from almost the last touch of the game (the winning goal against Sweden) so they will have good memories of Hampden as well. They won’t have too many fears about coming back but hopefully we will get a full house and the place will be rocking like it has been in the last two home games.”
After the latest round of restrictions announced this week, there has been significant concern about reducing the capacity of stadiums to 500 for at least the next three weeks.
Premiership clubs agreed to suspend two rounds of fixtures after Boxing Day in a bid to get them played with capacity crowds, and Clarke hopes the March fixture at Hampden will be unaffected.
He added: “Hopefully the vaccination programme goes well and starts to take effect.
“We are going to have a period of time where the infections and hospitalisations are going to go up a bit but if we can control it and have not too many deaths and don’t overwhelm the system, then by the time we get to March hopefully we are in a better place.
“We still have a bit of time before March so I wouldn’t like to think Covid will affect the games in March.”
Scotland have also been drawn to face Ukraine in the next iteration of the Nations League, as well as Ireland and Armenia.
Topping their group would see them promoted to the top tier of the competition, where they could face off with the likes of Italy, Germany and Spain.
“We’ve got different teams to play against,” added Clarke.
“Armenia we have never faced before so that will be good and the nature of the Nations League is good because you are playing against teams on a similar level to you.
“It should be a very competitive group and hopefully we can improve enough to finish top of that group. If we can, we can make another step forward.”
Changes to the Nations League have been mooted from 2024, with the 10 South American countries invited, while Fifa’s hopes of pushing through a biennial World Cup have been met by stern resistance.
“I’m not too keen on the World Cup proposal,” said Clarke.
“The four-year period with the Euros in between fits quite well into the international calendar and I’m happy with that. Maybe it’s because I am a traditionalist that I enjoy that cycle.
“The idea of the South American teams joining the Nations League is interesting and something that might be good for the competition.”