Wounding events in modern history mean Scotland can not be a football country that expects. It is, however, one on tenterhooks as the prospect of long‑awaited World Cup qualification looms so large.On paper, the task is simple: beat Denmark at Hampden Park on Tuesday and the Scots will take a place in next summer’s tournament. It is the significance of progress that matters far more than the fact the Danes are ranked 18 places higher in the world.Scotland have not played in the World Cup since 1998. You must go back to 1989 for the last time they qualified for anything in front of a Hampden audience. This ranks as a game for the ages. Potentially.The testimony of Andy Robertson is fascinating in this context. The Liverpool full-back and Scotland captain knows a thing or two about marquee achievement. He has 89 caps. What would leading his country to a World Cup mean? “I don’t like thinking about it and that’s the honest answer,” he said. “I’m excited and looking forward to a one-game shootout for the World Cup. If it happens, I’ll tell you how I feel about it.”There is a danger Scotland could get swallowed up by a wave of emotion. Denmark, serial tournament participants, will surely be poised to take advantage in that circumstance.“The players have got a job to do,” said Scotland’s manager, Steve Clarke. “If they are not nervous or excited by the challenge ahead then they wouldn’t be at this level. They understand the magnitude of the game and what it means, but they just have to prepare for a game of football and make sure they are focused on how we want to play it. They have to be focused on what Denmark might do. That’s our job as a coaching staff, to give them an idea.“When they cross the white line, they have to go out and play. And if they go out and play like they can play, then I believe they are good enough to get the result we need.”There is a rising sense that fate has decided Scotland must win Group C. They have been – depending on your outlook – unconvincing or lucky in chunks of this campaign. Scotland scraped past Belarus last month. Yet here they are, 90 minutes from glory.Scotland’s head coach, Steve Clarke, says the players ‘understand the magnitude of the game’. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PAThe scenario owes everything to Denmark’s failure to beat Belarus on Saturday. Had Denmark prevailed in Copenhagen, Scotland’s defeat in Greece would have consigned them to a playoff berth.“It is dangerous territory, I don’t believe in that,” Robertson said in respect of what might be written in the stars. “While not defending our performance what Saturday did show was that Belarus are a very good team.“We probably got the toughest pot-four team in the whole qualifiers. Belarus were no mugs, they were an extremely difficult team to play against and they showed that at Hampden and again away to the pot-one team.“There was huge frustration after that game in terms of the reaction from you guys, from the fans, from ourselves. Points are points and we managed to get three on the board. A lot has been said in this campaign, some negativity at times and maybe some justified, but we are sitting here with 10 points. We are one point behind first place and we know we are 90 minutes away from the World Cup.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Football DailyKick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of footballPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionClarke is the same margin from leading his country to a third finals. With his tenure expected to end whenever Scottish involvement in the World Cup does, the 62‑year‑old may go out on the ultimate high. “These players are already very, very high in the ranking of what we’ve done as a country,” he said. “When I took the job six and a half years ago, a lot of people were telling me not to touch it. That it was a poisoned chalice, that you can not do this.“I looked at the group of players and I said I could see some quality there and I could see a group who I’d look forward to working with. I said that because I felt we could achieve good things. We have managed to do that and now we have another very, very good thing we can achieve together.”Despite the 3-2 defeat, Scotland’s attacking play in Athens was excellent in spells. Scott McTominay’s influential second half provides particular hope.Denmark arrived in Glasgow minus only the San Diego forward Anders Dreyer after the sickness bug that disrupted their start to this international window. Rasmus Højlund, who was forced to sit out the Belarus tie, has returned to rude health and is expected to play. The visiting head coach, Brian Riemer, denied despondency from the 2-2 draw with Belarus may linger.“What happened in the first game, what happened in the second game and fifth game is completely irrelevant at this stage,” he said. “To sit in the changing room, not having secured the ticket for the World Cup because we were having a hangover from a Belarus game … I don’t think that’s possible with top professional footballers. I don’t think you see any teams go through a season, whether it’s club football or international football, without bumps.”Scotland have endured almost 30 years of them.

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