Scotland Ahead

[jayp]

PARIS - With only two games to go, Italy and France are looking up at Scotland in qualifying for next year's European Championship.

Scotland?

Yes, the team that has only ever made it to two Euros and has never been past the first round of the World Cup in eight attempts.

When qualifying began a year ago, it was expected that World Cup champion Italy and runner-up France would run away with the two spots from Group B. Ukraine, with Andriy Shevchenko, was supposed to be the nearest challenger.

No one really thought about the Scots.

But the team that usually counts major success as a victory over neighbor England, has survived a change of coach to win eight of its 10 group games, including 1-0 home and away victories over the French.

Although it lost to Italy 2-0 in Bari, Scotland still has the Italians to play next month at Hampden Park, and the Scots show no sign of wilting under pressure.

While Italy edged Georgia 2-0 and France hammered the Faeroe Islands 6-0 on Saturday, Scotland stayed at the top of the group with a 3-1 victory over Ukraine.

Even Shevchenko, who scored Ukraine's lone goal in Glasgow, was impressed.

"Scotland is a good team and this is a big success for the country and the national side," said the striker, who now plays in England for Chelsea.

"This is a great result for them and keeps them first in the group with every chance of qualifying. It is a very tough group, but everything is in Scotland's hands. They have two very important games left which everything now depends on."

Traveling to Georgia for Wednesday's next game, Scotland leads Italy by one point. France is third, a further point behind.

The Scots should be confident of a victory in Tbilisi and the French should beat Lithuania in Nantes to put the pressure back on the Italians.

Scotland captain Barry Ferguson said Saturday's victory over Ukraine showed what big improvements the Scots had made despite Walter Smith's decision to quit and join Rangers halfway through qualification.

"It's great to be part of a national side that is doing ever so well but we are desperate to get to a major championship," the Rangers midfielder said. "We are so close _ two games to go _ and hopefully we can get there."

Scotland will have Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher back from suspension and injury. But a glance at the lineup shows it has few big stars.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon is considered Scotland's best for years, and the rest of the lineup is a mixture of veterans and players who sit on the bench in the English Premier League.


Scotland has been one of the underachievers in world soccer despite giving the game the likes of Manchester United's Denis Law, Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish and Jim Baxter of Rangers.

In 1967, Scottish club Celtic was the first British team to win the European Cup. Yet the national team failed to match its success.

Scotland has also produced some of the greatest coaches.

Alex Ferguson guided Manchester United to 20 trophies in his two decades at Old Trafford, and other hugely successful Scots to make it at coaching level were Matt Busby (Man United), Jock Stein (Celtic) and Bill Shankly (Liverpool).

Now Alex McLeish, who played under Ferguson when Aberdeen broke the Celtic-Rangers domination of Scottish soccer in the mid-80s, is in charge of the national team and could be guiding it to Euro 2008, which will be played Austria and Switzerland.