STEVE Clarke has stressed he is only concerned with Scotland beating Georgia tonight and then securing automatic qualification for the Euro 2024 finals - despite his side being on the verge of a historic achievement.
Clarke’s team, who have racked up wins over Cyprus, Spain and Norway in their Group A games to date, can become the first from this country to win the opening four matches of a qualification campaign if they triumph at Hampden this evening.
But the Ayrshireman is simply interested in picking up three points against visitors who are undefeated in their opening two outings and are in second place in the section and then making it through to Germany next summer without needing to go through the play-offs.
“I just want to win the next game,” he said. “It (making history) doesn’t compute in my head. After you have done it you can say: ‘That was great, we did that’. But it is not at the forefront of my mind something like that.”
Tartan Army footsoldiers are on a huge high in the wake of the dramatic 2-1 win over Norway in Oslo on Saturday night – goals from Lyndon Dykes and Kenny McLean in the last four minutes clinched victory – and many of them have been looking at when Scotland can potentially qualify.
However, Clarke knows that Georgia, who beat Cyprus away on Saturday night and will field Napoli sensation Khvicha Kvaratskhelia out wide, will be awkward opponents and has driven home to his players the importance of not getting carried away with their results to date.
Asked if he had attempted to figure out when Scotland could book their place in the finals, he said. “No, no, no. Listen, football has got a great habit of coming back to bite you if you don’t respect it. You have to respect the game. Every team is good. I know what can happen if you switch off. We will try and make sure that we don’t make any mistakes tomorrow night.
“The boys are still singing. I’ve heard them bursting into song every now and again. They are still happy, which is good. You want them to be happy, you want them to enjoy the result and be confident going in to the game. But they understand the importance of the game coming up.”
Clarke added: “I just want to qualify from the group. I don’t care when the points come. I just want to get the right amount of points to make sure we go to Germany. They come when they come. If it takes until the last game and we still qualify then that’s what we have to do. That doesn’t bother me. I just want to make sure that this group of lads go to another major tournament.
“We have spoken about it. Before the last camp, somebody mentioned the play-offs and I said: ‘What play-offs?’. Everybody looked at me as if I was daft, but I knew what I was saying. We speak only about automatic qualification, that’s the only thing we have in our heads.”
