Stephen O'Donnell says Scotland will need strong start in 'tight' World Cup qualifying group

Stephen O’Donnell says Scotland will be looking to start strongly in a “tight” qualifying group to keep their hopes of reaching next summer’s World Cup on track.

The road to North America begins on Friday night as the national team take on Denmark in Copenhagen, before they play Belarus in Hungary on Monday.

Greece, who won 3-0 at Hampden back in March, are the final team in a four-team group, with only the team that finishes top guaranteed a place in the finals, which kick off in Mexico on June 11.

Motherwell defender O’Donnell, who has 26 international caps and was part of the squad that reached Euro 2020, says four points from the first two games would be “great”, but insists three points at least is a minimum requirement to keep them in the hunt.

And, while he conceded that it is a tough group, he insists Scotland shouldn’t be fearful of anyone with some of the players Steve Clarke has at his disposal and the experience they can take from previous campaigns.

Speaking to STV Sport, he said: “I think it will be difficult, obviously Scotland have proved that we can compete at this level and the next step for this squad is to try and qualify for a World Cup.

“But, it’s going to be difficult with the teams we are in with, it’s going to be very tight. Denmark are notoriously difficult to play against and to have them away from home in the first game of the group when most of our players, and their players of course, have only just started their season.

“So, there’s not really any recent form to go off, but there is always room for optimism when you have players like Ben Gannon Doak, and Scott McTominay, who has already started back with Napoli as if things have just continued from last season, so that’s a really good positive.

“And hopefully we can put in a team performance that can get us a positive result.

“The minimum we’d be looking for from the opening two games would be three points, but that was to be a heavy defeat against Denmark, then it would make things a lot more difficult.

“Four points would be a great start, and six would be exceptional. We did it before in the last European campaign, and that was very un-Scotland-like, done and dusted a couple of months in, so hopefully it will be more of the same.

“I think we will need to beat Belarus, where they are ranked, no disrespect to them as going away from home against any team in international football is difficult. They will be organised and tough to play against, but that needs to be a win, then you have to give as little away as possible against Denmark and Greece.

“I think it will be tight, but if we get four points from the first two games, then I’d be very happy with that.”

“This team has shown they can compete against the top nations, and we have the individual quality as well as a togetherness, with good experience, the majority of this squad has already played away in Denmark, and hopefully they can draw on that kind of experience.”