Carver insists Scots are out to make history and keep growing as a team

Scotland coach John Carver insists they can make history at the European Championships.

The national side get their Euros campaign under way today against the Czech Republic at Hampden.

It’s the first time Scotland have played a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup in France.

Having ended the long drought to reach a final, Carver’s sights are now set on breaking barren run.

During eight World Cup appearances and two previous European Championship campaigns, Scotland have never got beyond the group stage.

But Carver reckons the Scots can progress from Group D, which also contains England and Croatia.

The 56-year-old said: “Since I arrived in September I think we have had five camps and the quality in the group has got better and better and the standard has got higher and higher.

“We’re going into this tournament and I’m expecting us to get out of the group.

“I think the guys are confident enough to do that and if we can achieve something that’s never been achieved by a Scotland men’s team then that’s what we will be looking to do.”

None of Steve Clarke’s 26-man squad for the Euros has been involved in a senior international tournament before, but

Carver is feeling confident the players who don the Dark Blue throughout the competition will cope with the occasion.

He only needs to look back to how Scotland qualified to make the finals of the Euros with a nerveshredding penalty shootout play-off victory against Serbia.

Carver added: “When we went to Serbia in November the expectations were that it was an extremely difficult game.

“However, the players stood man to man and performed at the highest level.

“So I’ve got no fears going into a tournament that they haven’t been at before.

“They won’t freeze, they’ll cope with the situation.”

After 23 years of missing out on major tournaments, Carver is determined Scotland won’t just be making up the numbers at the Euros.

He said: “What we don’t want to do is just arrive at the tournament and say ‘right we’re happy to be here’.

“We want to take the next step because if we have a good tournament that will put us in very good stead for the next part of the World Cup campaign.

“This group of players want to be competitive and progress.

“The manager has talked about every time we play a match and gain experience we will get better and get stronger.”

Scotland boss Steve Clarke, left, with coach John Carver.