Steve Clarke saw Scotland’s road map to the next World Cup drawn in Switzerland –then promised to lead the Tartan Army all the way to the finals in two years.

The national boss attended yesterday’s draw in Zurich as his side came out of the pot in Group C along with either Portugal or Denmark, Greece and Belarus. The national boss will have to wait until March, when the Portuguese and Danes meet in the Nations League quarter finals, to discover which one of the top seeds he’ll be pitted against – with the losers of that tie dropping into his section.

But Clarke is clear on his ambitions in what is set to be his last-ever campaign as Scotland boss. He said: “For everyone connected with Scotland we are desperate to get back to a World Cup. The last one was in 1998 which was a long time ago – I was still playing, so that shows you what a long time it’s been.

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“We appreciate the Tartan Army wants to be there as well. We know that when we do qualify for a major tournament the Tartan Army are desperate to be there. They showed that in Germany in the summer and hopefully we can take them to the USA, Mexico and Canada.

“When I spoke after the tournament in the summer, I said one of my main remaining ambitions is to go to a World Cup with my country. These qualifying games give me an opportunity. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got, I’m sure my players will do the same.

“We’ve played teams at the highest level recently and we’ve seen that we have to be right at the top of our game to get points from them. It was a difficult year but we finished it well. We showed that we can compete against the top teams and that’s what we will have to do if we want to get to the World Cup.

“The fact we’ve already seen so many supporters renewing their memberships, it shows that the supporters buy in to this team and what we’re trying to achieve.

The players are desperate to do well for their country, the supporters appreciate that. We want the supporters to be involved as much as possible because we saw in Germany that when the Tartan Army are in full voice, they’re a force to be reckoned with.

“There’s no extra motivation required. The squad is full of players who want to go to the World Cup so now is the time to do it.”

Ironically, Scotland drew at home to Portugal in October to set up a double header with the Greeks in March in the play-offs for a place in the top level of the Nations League. And Clarke also oversaw a 2-0 home win over Denmark in October 2021 in the last ill-fated World Cup campaign.

He said: “It could have been worse and it could have been better. I’m never a big one for looking too deeply into draws, you just have to accept what you get and get on with it.

“We’ve got a difficult pot one team – it doesn’t matter if it’s Portugal or Denmark – it’s going to be difficult

“We know the Pot One game is going to be difficult but we’ve shown over the past few games that we can handle teams at that level. Looking at Denmark, that victory at Hampden in 2021 was a memorable night.

“We lost in Denmark then won by the same scoreline, so we know what to expect. We played Portugal recently in the Nations League matches. We did well to get a point off them at Hampden and we played well over there.

“Greece we’ll get to know very well over the next year because we play them twice in March and then twice again later in the year, so we have four games. Not many teams go to Wembley and beat England so that tells you they are a team with qualities.

“Belarus I don’t know too much about just now but I’ll make sure I do my homework. We’re in a four-team group and know what we must do – finish first or second to qualify.”