Road to Euro 2024: Where does victory over Spain leave Scotland's chances?

Scotland beat Spain 2-0 in their latest Euro 2024 qualifier at Hampden on Tuesday, as goals from Scott McTominay secured a famous win at Hampden.

The win against the former world champions and group favourites came just days after a 3-0 victory over Cyprus at the same stadium.

Goals from John McGinn and Scott McTominay gave Steve Clarke’s men a winning start and they now sit first in Group A after two games.

We take a look at what that means for the Tartan Army’s chances of making the competition held in Germany next summer.

Remaining fixtures

As second seeds Scotland’s next two games are against the third and fourth pot sides meaning they will be vital in the race to finish in the top two.

Despite being ranked ahead of both Norway and Georgia they will have two of the continent’s most in-form and highly rated talents lying in wait in the shape of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Scotland will travel to Oslo for their first away game of the group on June 17 before hosting the Georgians in Glasgow three days later.

After that they face three away games in a row against Cyprus on September 8, Spain on October 12 and Georgia on November 16.

The finish up with a game against the Norwegians at Hampden on November 19.

Norway vs Scotland June 17

Scotland vs Georgia June 20

Cyprus vs Scotland September 8

Spain vs Scotland October 12

Georgia vs Scotland November 16

Scotland vs Norway November 19

What do Scotland need to do to qualify?

The top two sides will directly qualify for the 24-team tournament that will be held next year between June 14 and July 14.

But even if Scotland fail to finish in the top two they still have the safety of a play-off spot that they earned by winning their Nations League B group last year.

Victories over Ukraine and Ireland at Hampden helped them top the group and gain promotion to the A groups and cemented another shot at the Euros even if they finish dead last in their qualifying group.

Scotland used that route to qualify for Euro 2020 with play-off victories over Israel and Serbia.

However they fell at that hurdle when trying to reach Qatar 2022 when they were defeated by Ukraine in the semi-final.

Other results so far

Spain played host to Norway in their opening game and recorded a 3-0 victory in Malaga to equal Scotland’s opening win over Cyprus just hours earlier.

The Norwegians, however, were without Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland and missed a host of chances while the game was poised at 1-0 after Dani Olmo’s early opener.

But two late goals from Espanyol forward Joselu sealed the game in the last ten minutes to give Spain a winning start.

Norway then travelled to Georgia on Tuesday and took the lead through Real Sociedad forward Alexander Sorloth.

Georges Mikautadze equalised for the home side after the hour mark to secure a point each for the third and fourth seeded teams.

Spain 3-0 Norway

Georgia 1-1 Norway

Group A as it stands

Scotland 6

2. Spain 3

3. Georgia 1

4. Norway 1

5. Cyprus 0

Previous Euros campaigns

Scotland have qualified for the European Championships on three occasions with all but three of their games being played in the UK.

The most recent was in the Euro 2020 tournament that was held throughout the continent in 2021 after being postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Steve Clarke’s side lost two games at Hampden to Czech Republic and Croatia but managed a respectable 0-0 draw against eventual finalists England at Wembley.

You have to go back to 25 years before that for their last appearance when they reached Euro 96 held in England where Craig Brown’s men managed a draw with Netherlands and beat Switzerland 1-0 but narrowly missed out on a place in the knockout stages on goal difference after a 2-0 defeat to England.