Scott McKenna relishing thought of Scotland fans supporting team at World Cup

Scott McKenna believes qualification for next summer’s World Cup in America would generate even more hype in Scotland than Euro 2024 did.

The Scottish public went wild for the showpiece in Germany last year as it was the first time this century that the team had qualified for a major tournament overseas and not affected by Covid restrictions.

McKenna reckons making it to a World Cup for the first time since 1998 – a feat they can achieve by taking a point in Greece on Saturday and then beating Denmark at home on Tuesday – would be an even bigger deal for the Tartan Army, who travelled to the last Euros in their thousands.

“I don’t think anything comes much bigger than a World Cup,” said the Dinamo Zagreb defender. “Obviously the Euros were big, but the World Cup is on the next level.

“There was thousands and thousands of fans travelling to Germany and all the cities we played games in and they spent a lot of money to get there to support us.

“Not only in Germany, but back home as well, it really brought everyone together so I would imagine it would be like that but on steroids if it was a World Cup.

“The thought of all the Scotland fans travelling to America, having a party and supporting the team, it sounds absolutely amazing.

“For everyone it would be absolutely incredible. It’s probably something we’ll always have dreamed of since kids.

“But obviously we’re still two games away from that and it’s important that all our focus just now is on Greece. Then after that we’ll move on to Denmark.

Scotland – already assured of a play-off spot – are hoping to set up a final-night shoot-out with Denmark for a place at the World Cup.

In order to do that, they must avoid defeat in Piraeus on Saturday against a Greece side already out of contention for qualification after losing 3-1 away to both Scotland and Denmark last month.

“I think any team that have already lost the ability to qualify will have a point to prove,” said McKenna.

“Obviously losing to us last month, where arguably they were better than us for 60 minutes, they’ll be coming to prove a point.

“But we showed what we can do last month in that last 30 minutes. We’ll be looking to try and do it for longer this time around.”

Scotland followed up their unconvincing display against Greece with a poor display a few nights later in their 2-1 victory over Belarus, which incurred the wrath of the usually mild-mannered head coach Steve Clarke.

“We need to improve from the last camp,” said McKenna. “Obviously the points were there, but the performances on the pitch weren’t of the level expected and the level we’ve been used to over the last few years.

“After that last game the manager was pretty strong in his words and made it clear to everyone that that performance was well below the levels expected, and if we want to have any chance then we need to up our performance.”