Scotland defender Scott McKenna hailed the unity of the current crop of players within the national setup as a big factor in the squad’s qualification for the World Cup.
The 29-year-old played the first half of his nation’s 4-1 home win over Curacao, making him one cap shy of his 50th.
Having made his debut amongst inexperienced internationalists in 2018, McKenna feels the creation of a team has been paramount to Scotland’s qualifiers success.
He said: “When we went to Peru and Mexico [in 2018], we were the team playing in a send off for them, and when we were playing Mexico, I think between the starting 11 we had less than 30 caps.
“And I think now, we’d struggle to find anyone in our starting 11 with less than 30 caps, so it’s a sign of how far this team’s coming in terms of togetherness. The gaffer [Steve Clarke] has also been very loyal to us, trying to build that squad feeling.
“The group has really grown since then [Mexico], in terms of getting that winning mentality, finding a way to win. Even during this last qualifying campaign, we were terrible in games, [such as] Belarus at home.
“They are the sort of games in the past we might not have won but we managed to grind through it and find a way to win. So yeah, it is testament to how far this team has come.”
McKenna, who was part of both squads for the 2021 and 2024 European Championships, believes that this summer is a perfect platform to erase the disappointments from those campaigns and progress from the group stage.
“Of course we can [qualify], of course we can. But that is the test that everyone is setting us just now, we need to try and rise to that challenge.
“I don’t think there is any doubt in that at all [that the squad could have given a better account of themselves at previous tournaments].
“I think the start to the last campaign made it difficult, a point to Switzerland gave ourselves a chance, and then the last day we just didn’t quite do enough to give ourselves any chances really.
“But we’re going there to definitely try do better.”
The Dinamo Zagreb defender, who comes into this tournament off the back of a Croatian league and cup double, also feels that the Croatian culture towards football has helped the nation develop into a one of Europe’s most competitive sides, despite having a similar population pool to Scotland.
“In Croatia, certainly Dinamo, they just keep bringing players through the academy.
“The conveyer belt they keep producing, there’s no club in Scotland that has produced anything like that, and I think population wise, we’re much the same.
“Maybe [it is] a culture thing as well? But yeah, hopefully I can go into the academy, watch a few sessions and see what their process is because they definitely know how to do it properly.”
