IN LIKE McGINN
Clarke believes Scots can dare to dream of Euros as Villa star inspires comeback
STEVE ClarkE insists the nation now has reason to believe Scotland can secure a place at the Euro 2020 finals following a John McGinn-inspired fightback against kazakhstan.
His side ended a disappointing group campaign on a high with a 3-1 win which avenged the humiliating defeat in Nur-Sultan in March.
With the Scots racking up three wins in a row for the first time since 2017, McGinn also became the first player since James McFadden to score in three
consecutive games with a second-half double which took his tally to seven in six matches. Steven Naismith claimed his tenth goal for his country as they maintained momentum heading into Friday’s draw for the play-offs, where they could be paired with Israel, Bulgaria, Romania or Hungary in the semi-final in March and Norway or Serbia in the final four days later. Asked who he would take in the draw in Nyon, Clarke said: ‘No preferences. Always with a draw, you take what you get. It will be nice to have a little bit of clarity, so we can actually start planning. ‘We’ll be at home (in the semi) and we’ve shown tonight we can be a good team here at Hampden. It will be full, I’m sure. We’ll get a good atmosphere, get the team on the front foot and we can be okay.’ The toss of a coin will decide the venue for the final game. Admitting a full Hampden could be a huge boost after a crowd of 19,515 turned out to see the Scots finish third in Group I, Clarke added: ‘It will be nice. I’ve been here a few times myself as a supporter when it’s been like that. ‘It’s a long way away, though. We can enjoy tonight and the fact it’s three wins in a row. But we still have a lot of work to do. We’re not getting carried away thinking we’ve cracked it. ‘I said before Cyprus I could see signs of improvement. ‘Until we started getting results, I couldn’t start shouting about it. Hopefully, other people can see there has been a little step forward. ‘With this group of players, I can be very optimistic about the play-offs. They’re desperate to get to a major finals.’ Kazakhstan opened the scoring with a Baktiyar Zainutdinov screamer after 34 minutes but Scotland upped the tempo in the second half to score three times. ‘It was a great reaction from the players,’ said Clarke.