The build up to France 98 was far from magnifique
Steve Clarke will hope his preparations for Euro 2020 go a lot better than they did for Scotland’s last major tournament.
The build-up to France 98 consisted of five matches – two defeats and three draws.
Would a victory have sent the Scots off to play Brazil in the opening game of the World Cup Finals in better heart?
It’s fair to say they weren’t a squad low on confidence despite those mediocre results.
Men like Jim Leighton, Colin Hen dry, Colin Calderwood, Tom Boyd, John Collins and Gordon Durie were over 30, and had plenty of medals in their lockers.
Their first outing after sealing qualification was a trip to play hosts, France, in Saint- Etienne in November, 1997.
Losing 2-1 to the nation that would win the World Cup in impressive style seven months later wasn’t a dreadful outcome.
The Scots’ first friendly of the new year was a 1-0 defeat by Denmark at Ibrox.
Brian Laudrup scored at the stadium where he was playing his club football with Rangers.
The Danes were a decent side, and had also qualified for the World Cup.
It was another Rangers player, Jonatan Johansson, who scored against Scotland in a 1- 1 draw against Finland at Tynecastle.
Darren Jackson got the equaliser for Craig Brown’s side, and it wasn’t the most- impressive result against a team nearly 20 places below Scotland in the World Rankings.
When domestic football was finished, Scotland flew to the United States to prepare for France.
A 2-2 draw with Colombia and 0-0 against the USA at least ensured the squad didn’t fly back to Europe with a fresh taste of defeat.
They did, however, lose something when keeper Andy Goram realised he wasn’t going to be first choice and quit.
It will be important for Steve Clarke to spend some time with his players before the Euros next summer.
There is an international break scheduled between March 22 and March 30, so Scotland will hope to play a friendly or two.
How vital will the results be?
It depends if you believe the Scots should finally qualify from a group or, after an absence of 23 years, it’s only the taking part that counts.