Clarke: Scotland can create history by reaching Euros knockout stages

Steve Clarke believes his Scotland side can “create a bit of history” by reaching the knockout stages of the European Championships.

Despite coming agonisingly close on several occasions, the national team have never qualified from a group at any major tournament.

But the current head coach insists they can change that if they play to their maximum and get the right amount of luck against Germany, Switzerland and Hungary.

The eyes of the continent will be on Scotland when they take on the hosts in Munich in the opening game on June 14.

And Clarke hopes the players can use the experience of taking part in Euro 2020, that was played in 2021 after being delayed a year over the Covid pandemic, to help them reach the last 16.

Speaking to STV Sport he said: “At the last tournament we maybe expected too much and didn’t get what we wanted. We are going into this one with pretty much the same core squad so I’m excited to see how much we have improved.

“Hopefully we can go to Germany and show everybody that we have improved.

“Most of the boys have experience of tournament football and will know more about what to expect going into this one, so hopefully we can see the fruits of our work over the last three years since Euro 2020.

“This squad have been fantastic for me and fantastic for their country and now they have a chance to create a bit of history, so lets see if we can do that.

“We will need top level performances against good teams, we are going to have to play to our maximum in the three group games.

“I believe if we play to our maximum and we get the right amount of football luck, that you need sometimes, I believe we can do it, so that is something for us to aim for.”

Top stars including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane will all take part at Euro 2024 which will run for a month until the final in Berlin on July 14.

After the opening game against Germany, Scotland will then play Switzerland on Wednesday, June 19 before ending the groups with a game against Hungary on Sunday, June 23.