SCOTLAND’S immediate objective at Euro 2024 is to get a result against Switzerland in the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne tonight and resurrect their hopes of reaching the knockout rounds of a major tournament for the first time in their history.
In the long-term, though, Steve Clarke would dearly love his country to emulate their next Group A opponents by qualifying for finals with great regularity and then progressing beyond the group stages whenever they get there.
Clarke accepts that this Swiss side is not as formidable a force at international level as the German team which inflicted a humiliating 5-1 defeat on his shellshocked charges in their opening outing in the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday night.
However, he has seen how Murat Yakin’s men, Xherdan Shaqiri, Yann Sommer, Granit Xhaka et al, have punched above their weight at World Cups and European Championships on numerous occasions in modern times and he is anticipating another hugely challenging evening in North Rhine-Westphalia.
“I thought they were really good the other night (they beat Hungary 3-1 in their opening match on Saturday),” he said. “I watched them in qualifying and I thought they were okay. They did enough to qualify. But they come here and immediately find their form.”
Clarke feels Scotland can draw inspiration from what Switzerland - a country with a population of just under nine million which spent many years, decades in fact, as an international laughing stock before completely transforming their fortunes and soaring up the FIFA World Rankings – have achieved.
“You sort of forget Switzerland a little bit,” he said. “But they are serial qualifiers. And pretty much always in the last 16 or the last eight. They know how to do it, they know what to do. They have a really strong spine through the middle of the team and they have pace up front. So let’s try to be like Switzerland.”
Scotland’s midfield struggled to deal with Toni Kroos, Jamal Musiala and Ilkay Gundogan last week and their manager knows they will have their work cut out dominating the middle of the park again against Switzerland with Bayer Leverkusen talisman Granit Xhaka pulling the strings. He is keen to see increased work rate and sharpness from whoever he selects in that crucial area.
“It will be a difficult game,” he said. “I liked Xhaka when he was at Arsenal. Obviously, he went to Leverkusen and he has found a good way of playing in a really good team. He has had a fantastic season and he will come here with 100 per cent confidence. We have to make sure he does not dictate the game in the way we allowed Germany to dictate the game.
“He’s a good player. He is a very good player. We just respect him. We need to get close to all the players further up the pitch because if we don’t get close to the players further up the pitch you end up doing what we did the other night, defending on the edge of the box.”
Clarke has worked hard to lift their morale of his Scotland players in training in Garmisch-Partenkirchen during the past four days and ensure they are not lacking in self-belief when the match in Cologne gets underway this evening. However, he is hopeful that an improved start against Switzerland will see the confidence levels rise instantly.
“It is time to get that belief back,” he said. “That’s about working on the mind and making sure we have everything correct in terms of tactics and bodies on the pitch and how we play. That might just give them that bit of belief.
“Obviously we want to start the game really well because we did not start the game really well the other night. All these little things can add up. But it does not take long for the confidence to come back to a professional footballer who knows he’s a good player. If he is a little bit down, a little bit hesitant and we start the game well and we do something good, then we’ll be fine.
“We have been chasing the clock on this one. But it is lucky we had one extra day to prepare. That is great and gives us a little bit more time to digest what we have done and work on what we have done and then prepare for what we have to do. So we have that on our side.
“I think because we have been together for so long it helps. The vast majority of us have been together for so long that it does not take much to remember what we are trying to do and how we work. We work quite well together. If we didn’t work quite well together I would not be sitting here and somebody else would be taking the team.”
Clarke was criticised for leaving Billy Gilmour, who was sensational for Scotland in their 0-0 draw with England at Wembley at Euro 2020, out of his starting line-up last week and he has been widely tipped to bring the Brighton midfielder back in against Switzerland this evening. However, he is wary of too much being demanded of the 23-year-old and has urged fans to be realistic in their expectations if he is involved.
“In a 5-1 game where we were never in the game, is one player going to make that amount of difference?” he said. “It is impossible to answer. It is difficult. You can say what you want and I can say that I don’t think it made a difference. You can say yes it did make a difference and we will never know.
“Maybe by talking about Billy in that context we are just putting too much pressure on him. If he is selected for the next game let him go into it with a clear head for the game.”
