Ryan Jack: Scotland 'very optimistic' of making an impact at Euro 2024 in Germany

Ryan Jack insists the Scotland squad are “very optimistic” of making an impact at Euro 2024 as they look to rectify the disappointment of two years ago.

The national team only managed one point at Euro 2020, which was held across the continent in 2021, despite playing two games at Hampden.

Both of the matches in Glasgow ended in defeat to Czech Republic and Croatia with the solitary point coming in a respectable draw with England at Wembley.

The 31-year-old Rangers midfielder missed out on a place in the squad through injury so is keen to play a part in Germany next year and will use that as extra motivation when he returns to Ibrox as he looks to secure his place on the flight.

All focus is now on the championships after Steve Clarke’s side ended their qualifying campaign with a 3-3 draw against Norway on Sunday.

They had already qualified for the tournament in Germany before the final two Group A games in Georgia and against the Norwegians at Hampden Park.

A 2-2 draw in Tbilisi on Thursday was followed by a thrilling match against Norway on Sunday, when Jack came on as a late substitute.

The draw will take place on December 2, after which the race will be on to make Clarke’s 23-man squad.

Jack said: “We all go back to our clubs. There is obviously a lot of football to be played, everyone will have a lot of big games to play from now to then.

“It is always at the back of your mind. You are never going to just forget what we have achieved.

“It is going to give everyone motivation to play well, to play consistently for their club and do everything we can to be part of it.

“It has been a great campaign. We qualified with a couple of games to spare and that has not been done for a long time.

“We wanted to go out with wins but at the start of the campaign the most important thing was qualifying and we did that.”

It was quite a final Group A game at Hampden where Aron Donnum fired the visitors ahead in the third minute before Scotland captain John McGinn levelled with a penalty ten minutes later.

Striker Jorgen Larsen regained Norway’s lead before an own goal by Leo Ostigard had the Scots level again before half-time.

A fine strike by Scotland midfielder Stuart Armstrong had the home side ahead for the first time but that was cancelled out by a late header from Norway substitute Mohamed Elyounoussi.

Scotland have lost only twice in total in their last two qualifying campaigns – to Spain last month and to Denmark in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which ended with Clarke’s side eventually missing out.

But Jack believes that experience of the previous Euros will be beneficial to the squad.

He said: “That (consistency) comes with belief and the confidence of getting results. The same core of the squad has been here since the last qualification.

“We are in a good place at the minute but we need to keep that going.

“We will be going to the tournament a lot more experienced and very optimistic.

“That (Euro 2020) will help. It probably didn’t go as well as we hoped so there will be a lot of reflection on that and what we think went wrong in that tournament and hopefully we can rectify that for this one.

“Hopefully the experience we have all had, the backroom staff, the players, will stand us in good stead for the next tournament.”

Scotland, who will be appearing at their fourth Euros, have never made it past the group stages of a major tournament.