WILL CLARK - Paranoia comes with Scotland’s qualification hopes
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CALL me paranoid, pessimistic or a hypochondriac, but I am still concerned Scotland won’t qualify for Euro 2024.
Yes, they are top of the group, five wins out of five with only three games left to play.
Yet, there is still a chance we won’t qualify and that terrifies the living daylights out of me.
“What you talking about you skinny prat?” you might shout at me, saying flipping journalists are always looking at the negative side of things.
I’ve followed Scotland too long to take anything for granted. Or everything.
We take on Spain on Thursday night when a draw will do to ensure qualification. Failing that, one point in Georgia or at home to Norway in our final two matches will be enough to guarantee qualification.
Spain have been rampant in their last two qualification matches, scoring 13 goals in their last two games, thrashing Georgia 7-1 in Tbilisi, then hammering Cyprus 6-0 at home.
Yet Spain are still far from assured of qualification for Euro 2024 and will be keen to avoid the repeat shock 2-0 defeat at Hampden when Scotland were magnificent.
I still have nightmares about the Euro 2008 qualification campaign, when after beating France home and away, we still threw away qualification by losing in Georgia before going down to 2-1 to Italy at Hampden.
I think Scotland have a 100 per cent losing record in Tbilisi, losing 2-0 in 2007 and then losing 1-0 in 2015 in Euro 2016 qualification. My recurring memory of that game in 2015 was watching it in a Spoons in Wick, and when I offered to buy Wick Academy compere Ken Wood a pint.
Instead, he asked me to redeem a voucher he had for an apple crumble and custard.
Norway can still qualify for the European Championships if they win all their remaining games and Scotland lose their last three matches.
With Erling Haaland, anything is possible and if Scotland can beat Spain at home, Norway are certainly capable of beating Spain in Oslo.
Maybe I need to cheer up, it has been mentioned by colleagues that I am a miserable character.
However, issuing them with verbal warnings and disciplinaries sorted them out.
But this is a different Scotland who know how to win matches.
Yes they were terrible against England in their last friendly, but maybe that was the wake up call required to be prepared for the match in Spain.
Watching Scotland’s last qualifying match in Cyprus at the home of political editor Scott Maclennan, sampling his questionable wine cellar and listening to him banging out superlatives about his air fryer, I was stunned with how Scotland claimed victory with ease.
Hopefully, by the time I write next week’s column, Scotland will have booked their place to Germany 2024 and I can look forward to drinking proper weissbier and gorging myself with currywurst.
However, I will still struggle to comprehend Scotland have qualified until it is mathematically guaranteed.
I almost managed to get through this column without mentioning the Rugby World Cup and Scotland crashing out of the tournament.
Hopefully, we can forget about the misery of France and look forward to a summer in Germany next year.
