Harvie keen to follow Clarke’s stars and make history
SCOTLAND UNDER 21 starlet Daniel Harvie is desperate to follow in the footsteps of Steve Clarke’s side and become the second Scottish team to make history within a week.
Scot Gemmill’s Under 21s travel to Greece for their last game in the qualifiers tomorrow for the Euros in Hungary and Slovenia in March.
They have given themselves a golden opportunity to reach their first finals in 25 years, knowing that a win will definitely clinch qualification. Anything less will almost certainly see them drop to third and out of the reckoning with Croatia entertaining Lithuania at home at the same time.
It is a dead rubber game for the hosts because they are already out and the young Scots are in pole position with a win seeing them go level on points with the Czech Republic and topping the group because of a better head- to- head record against the Czechs.
The Under 21s watched and celebrated with the rest of the nation as David Marshall’s iconic penalty save sent Scotland through to Euro 2020 – the first time they will be at a major finals for 23 years. It is even longer for the youngsters since they last got to a finals – in 1996 – and MK Dons defender Harvie wants to cap what would be an outstanding week for Scottish football in Athens and make Clarke take note of the Under- 21 squad too.
They showed their battling qualities after fighting back from two goals down at home to a talented Croatian side a few hours before the senior squad sent a nation wild in Belgrade to gain what was a vital point.
Harvie says it shows the never- say- die qualities in Gemmill’s squad.
“I think we all have a feelgood factor through all the age groups,” he said. “Everyone wants to get into that A squad and be able to play a part for games like Serbia. Looking at the full squad and how well they’ve done, it’s motivated us and challenged us to do even better. We want to do the best we can and Tuesday is a great opportunity for us to go to the Euros.
“I think that fightback against Croatia puts massive confidence in the team, although we’ve got plenty of that anyway with our results so far in this group.
“I know it was only a point at home and maybe we should have taken all three, but we’ll take it. We need to take all the positives from this and move it on to Tuesday. We know what we have to do now and we will do everything to get it.
“This team is full of guts and determination from the goalkeeper to the striker. The boys will fight for each other. At 2- 0 down we knew the game wasn’t done and we had that mindset that we will fight right to the end. We knew if we scored one we would go and push for the three points.
“Croatia obviously had a lot of really good players. But it was a great experience for myself and the boys to come up against this level of player. You can take it back into club level too. It’s a
good challenge and you thrive off it.”
Harvie also has a personal motivation to beat Greece. Scotland’s only defeat in the group came almost a year ago when he gave away an injury- time penalty for handball against the 10- man Greeks at home, which cost Scotland a 1- 0 loss.
“I think that defeat was harsh,” he said. “We were all disappointed when we played them at Tynecastle, especially me because I gave away the penalty. But it’s in the past and we move on. We will certainly go to Athens with nothing to fear. We know if we beat them, we win the group and qualify.”