MY ACCOUNT
Andrew Robertson believes Scotland must strive for “perfection” as they bid to progress automatically from what he feels is the strongest Euro 2024 qualifying group.
The Scots begin their campaign at home to Cyprus on Saturday knowing they are already assured of a play-off for next year’s finals in Germany by virtue of their Nations League performance last year.
However, after suffering World Cup play-off heartache against Ukraine last summer, captain Robertson is determined to ensure Scotland seal a top-two finish from a group that also includes past winners Spain, Erling Haaland’s Norway and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s Georgia.
He said: “This is the toughest group in the whole Euro qualifiers I think but we’re looking forward to the challenge.
“As second seeds, I’m not sure we’ve got the benefit from it. We’ve certainly got the toughest pot three and pot four teams and even pot five getting Cyprus.
“We had the feeling of qualifying for the last Euros and we want that feeling again. This squad are hungry to represent the country at more tournaments and we believe we’ve got a chance.
“We’ve got a guaranteed play-off through our really good Nations League and we have to use that to our advantage by going into this campaign with no fear.
“We’ve got that to fall back on but not to rely on. We have to go into this group and try and attack it and qualify automatically because we know play-offs can go either way.
“The last [World Cup] campaign was extremely positive. The play-offs didn’t go our way but the 10 games within the campaign were very good and if we replicate that this time and finish second we’ll automatically qualify for the Euros.
“When I look back on previous campaigns I’ve been involved in there’s always one game that annoys me in each campaign, and they always seem to cost you, so we know how perfect we have to be to qualify, and that’s what we’re striving towards.”
