Scotland welcome Belarus to Hampden Park tonight, aiming to take the next step towards a maiden World Cup appearance in 27 years.

Steve Clarke’s men are level on points with Denmark at the top of Group C, and could clinch a playoff spot if both sides record victories this evening.

Scotland has two wins and a draw in the opening three group matches, building on their September performances with a 3-1 win over Greece at Hampden Park on Thursday night.

Despite a dominant Greek performance, goals from Ryan Christie, Lewis Ferguson, and Lyndon Dykes secured an unlikely three points, sending Hampden into raptures.

Landmark for Clarke

Sunday’s clash with Belarus will mark Steve Clarke’s 72nd game in charge of Scotland, surpassing the record set by Craig Brown.

Clarke spoke about his time in charge so far.

“The brief was to qualify for tournaments.

“We’ve done that twice and we want to do it again because we’re all greedy. We’ve put together a strong nucleus that we’ve managed to build upon. That’s what creates the environment because they know each other – and good results help.

I’ve got a lot of players I’ve always trusted and have never let me down. It’s that familiarity, but that doesn’t come if you’re not successful because I’d have been out the door if we weren’t.”

Belarus

Scotland’s opponents, Belarus, sit at the bottom of Group C.

Belarus are winless in all three matches of their qualifying campaign so far; they have suffered four straight defeats in a row.

Last time out, Belarus fell to their second-biggest loss in the country’s history on Thursday when Denmark ran out 6-0 winners.

Team News

Full-back Aaron Hickey sustained a knock during Thursday’s match, and Steve Clarke has confirmed he’ll miss out.

Midfield duo Lewis Ferguson and Ryan Christie will also sit this one out due to suspension; the pair both picked up bookings on Thursday.

Steve Clarke was quick to add reinforcements to his squad to replace those two. Josh Mulligan of Hibs was handed his first international call-up, whilst Rangers midfielder Connor Barron also earned a call-up.