Graeme Souness says reaching World Cup counts more than beating England for Scotland
Thursday 6 October 2016 22:26, UK
Graeme Souness has stressed the importance of Scotland qualifying for the World Cup over beating England.
Gordon Strachan's side began their qualifying campaign last month with a 5-1 win in Malta and host Lithuania on Saturday before traveling to Slovakia for their next two qualifiers.
Next up after that is a meeting with England at Wembley and the Scots will be keen to replicate their 1-0 success there when the teams last met competitively in 1999.
Souness believes that can happen, but would readily accept defeats in both games against them in favour of ending the country's 20-year wait to get back to a major tournament.
The former Rangers and Liverpool manager, capped 54 times, said: "Gordon will try to get the message across that this is about three points.
"You can't afford to get caught up in the Auld Enemy thing. You would take losing to them twice and winning every other game and getting there.
"It is a bit like when I went to Ibrox and said I don't mind losing to Celtic if we win the league and [people said] 'What?'
"It's the same thing - it's always about qualification. The bragging rights from beating England only last for a few weeks.
"The excitement of going to a tournament, the build-up, being there, what that would do to the nation and the benefits to Scottish football would be far greater if we lost twice to England and us going than beating England twice and not going there."
When Scotland last went to a tournament - the 1998 World Cup in France - it was their eighth appearance at a finals event in 24 years.
The barren spell since has brought increasing pressure to end it and Sky Sports pundit Souness believes that is achievable, despite England being clear favourites to win Group F in the European Qualifiers.
He added: "It will be difficult. Obviously England are outstanding favourites but they are not certainties. I don't think this is the strongest group England have ever had but I think you have to fancy them to qualify.
"I've always believed it is a numbers game. I used to say that us qualifying for a World Cup was a success and I used to get my head bitten off for saying that.
"We are a nation of maybe less than five million against England, who have over 60 million. Common sense tells you that with more to pick from, they will be a better team. It has always been the way.
"That doesn't mean to say we can't beat them on occasions but if we played them 100 times they are going to win the vast majority of times.
"We don't have players who are playing at Manchester United or Arsenal and there is a reason why the players we have got are not at these big clubs.
"They are not deemed good enough and that is why they are playing in the Championship and lower Premier League teams. We have to accept that - but that doesn't mean to say we can't roll them over."
