The Scotland Men’s National Team said cheers to the Scotland supporters after securing successive UEFA EURO qualifications - with Steve Clarke urging his team to finish Group A with a flourish.
Scotland’s place in Germany was secured without kicking a ball as Spain defeated Norway 1-0 in Oslo, eliminating Ståle Solbakken’s side in the process.
Five group wins in a row helped ensure Scotland’s place in next summer’s tournament finals and the Head Coach paid tribute to his players and the fans for reinforcing the Hampden Park fortress.
“I would like to congratulate the players for their efforts in qualifying for back-to-back tournaments. I’m not sure they will fully realise the significance of their achievement yet but to qualify for successive EUROS after more than 20 years is phenomenal and testament to their hard work.
“I would also like to thank my backroom team for their support and, of course, the fans who have packed Hampden Park to capacity and made it a place to be feared once again. They have played a key part in our success, both home and away, and they can now look forward to making their plans for Germany – although I suspect many had done so before tonight.
“I said after EURO 2020 that we wanted to be serial qualifiers again and reaching successive EURO finals shows the progress we’ve made. We will raise a glass tonight to celebrate but then it’s back to work tomorrow in preparation for our friendly against France.
“Then we turn our attention to Georgia and Norway next month and finishing with as many points as we can.”
As the squad prepare to travel to Lille for Tuesday’s friendly against France, captain Andy Robertson expressed his delight at qualification and believes they can improve on EURO 2020, which was Scotland’s first major men’s tournament in over 20 years.
“It’s a great achievement for this squad to have qualified for EURO 2024 with two games remaining. When we qualified via the play-offs last time, we set ourselves a target of doing it automatically next time – so that’s the first mission accomplished.
“EURO 2020 was a great experience and the objective for us next summer is to build on that previous experience and improve on our last overall tournament performance.
“Our fans have been immense. We thank them for playing a huge part in our success and we look forward to seeing them in Germany in their tens of thousands.”