The Scotland Under-21s coach is in 'no doubt' that a number of his talented youngsters will be a hit with Steve Clarke.

Scot Gemmill was beaming over his prodigies - including Motherwell's Lennon Miller and Kilmarnock's David Watson - as his side found out their EURO 2027 fate. His side will face Portugal, Czechia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Gibraltar after being placed into Group B at Thursday morning's qualifying draw in Nyon, Switzerland.

The Under-21s faced heartbreak after finishing third in their qualification group for UEFA EURO 2025, with a play-off place just out of reach. These qualifiers will mark the start of a new cycle for the Under-21s, with players born in 2004 or younger being selected. But head coach Gemmill is excited for what the next generation can achieve in the senior Scotland team.

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“From the last age group, we’ve already seen a number of the players feature in Steve Clarke’s squad and I’ve no doubt there’s players in this next group who we will see in the national team in years to come," he said. "Of course we were disappointed with the manner of how our qualifiers ended last year, after what had been a strong campaign, but we were able to introduce a number of the younger players early, including the likes of Lennon Miller, Jeremiah Mullen and David Watson, and I’m sure they will be better for that experience going into this campaign.”

Reflecting on the draw, Gemmill said: “I think it will be a competitive group. For the players’ development, it’s important to test ourselves against different sides and the majority of these countries are teams who we’ve not faced in my time with the Under-21s, so there’s a bit of the unknown in that respect.

“Portugal were one of the stand-out teams in qualifying last time around and Czechia managed to beat Belgium in the play-offs, so we know they’re always a good side at this level. Lots of our players actually have experience in playing in Bulgaria from the Under-19 qualifiers a couple of years ago so that’s an interesting one.

"Azerbaijan and Gibraltar are two teams we don’t know too much about but we certainly will by the time the matches start. It’s always an exciting time with the start of the new cycle and we look forward to getting back together next month ahead of the qualifiers starting later in the year."