CELTIC Invincible Craig Gordon will be the oldest player on the Hampden pitch tonight as Scotland attempt to reach next summer’s World Cup Finals.
At 42, the former Hoops keeper, who played his part in the team’s phenomenal 2026/17 season when they remained undefeated as they claimed a glittering domestic treble, is three years old than his opposite number Kasper Schmeichel, now, of course, the champions’ last line of defence.
The veteran shotstopper was given the nod by international boss Steve Clarke to start ahead of his former Parkhead team-mate Scott Bain to play his first competitive game in six months in Greece in the topsy-turvy 3-2 defeat on Saturday night.
SITTING THIS ONE OUT…Craig Gordon is helpless as Greece open the scoring in the 3-2 loss.
Gordon, now at Hearts, made four excellent saves in the first-half as the hosts threatened to run amok before a stirring Scots’ fightback in the remaining half-hour in which ex-Celts Ben Gannon-Doak and Ryan Christie clawed back two goals to set up a dramatic finale.
Alas, Clarke’s men couldn’t salvage a point and succumbed to their first defeat in the Group C qualifiers.
While they lost in Piraeus, the Danes were being held to a shock 2-2 draw by Belarus in Copenhagen to blow their chance of automatic qualification for the Finals.
The combination of results left Schmeichel and Co with a point advantage over the Scots and has set up a winner-takes-all encounter between the nations at a sold-out Hampden this evening as they battle for a place in the summer showpiece in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
The last time Scotland qualified for the elite competition was in France in 1998 when the late Craig Brown was in charge.
To put that in context, Gordon was 15 at the time and still at school!
However, the Scots, backed by the vociferous Tartan Army, have the ideal opportunity to end the misery in Mount Florida.
Clarke has already led the national side to back-to-back European Championships and is hoping to go one better.
The country’s team chief said: “I’d like to go to the World Cup with my country.
“I think if you look at what we’ve achieved over the last six and a half years, a lot of these players are already, I’ll use your words, ‘legends’.
“But they’re already very, very high in the ranking of what we’ve done as a country.
“When I took the job six and a half years ago, a lot of people were saying: ‘Don’t touch it, it’s a poisoned chalice, you can’t do this’.
“I looked at the group of players and I said: ‘I see some quality there. I look forward to working with this group of players because I think we can achieve good things.’
“We’ve managed to do that. Now we’ve got another very, very good thing that we can achieve together.”
Looking at the threat from the Danes, Clarke, speaking to Sky Sports, added: “I’m expecting their heads won’t be down, because they also still have the opportunity to go through as group winners.
“They’ll come here determined to make amends for their slip-up the other night.
WORLD CUP WOES…Craig Gordon can’t hide his disappointment as Andy Robertson and back-up keeper Scott Bain acknowledge the Tartan Army after Scotland’s 3-2 loss in Greece.
“We’re determined to make sure that it’s another difficult night for the Danes and a great night for us.
“If our players are not nervous or excited by the challenge ahead, 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 that they’re focused on how we want to play.
“If they go out and play as they can play, then I believe that they’re good enough to get the result that we need.”
If the Scots fail to get the three points, they will have the safety net of a play-off in March to fall back on.
But they will be aiming to get the job done and dusted at a rocking national stadium this time out.
*DON’T miss the unbeatable match report and best action images from Scotland v Denmark this evening – only in your champion CQN.
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