Filed under: Football, Scotland
Scotland may face an uphill task in their attempts to reach Euro 2012 but Craig Levein feels that his squad will be maturing nicely in time to push for a place in the World Cup in Brazil.The Scots drew Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Wales and Macedonia in Saturday's draw, a collection of very competent and steady teams, rather than something to terrify Levein.
In pushing Spain all the way in their 3-2 defeat at Hampden Park in October, as well as their brushes with France and Italy in recent years, Scotland have shown that they can worry the best.
But crucially, they have a crop of positive ball-playing midfielders that should ensure that they will not struggle to break down weaker teams, which has been their Achilles heel in the past.
It may only have been against a fringe Northern Ireland side, but most observers were stunned by the way the Scots pulled Nigel Worthington's team to bits in a 3-0 win in the Carling Nations Cup in February.
The recent displays are also likely to give Levein the confidence to take teams on, with the negativity of the 1-0 defeat in the Czech Republic still fresh in the memory.
And Levein is right to believe that the current group will be ready to mount a serious challenge for a first place at a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup.
"I don't know much about Croatia and in pot two I knew a fair bit about the other teams, but not so much about Serbia," Levein told Sky Sports.
"I do know a little bit about Belgium because they're improving and Macedonia, we've had recent experience with and I probably would have liked to have avoided Wales because it brings in that home international rivalry, which we could have done without.
"We're improving. That's the most important thing for me and I look at the group of players we have and the ages they are and I see them being together for the next four years at least and possibly six years.
"A lot of them had the best season of their career last campaign, so I'm greatly encouraged where we're heading."
Down in Pot Six, Wales' next couple of qualification campaigns are surely all about improving their seeding position and Gary Speed's men will not be expected to thrive in Group A.
Yet Speed was remaining positive after leaning his opposition and he told BBC Sport: "There's no weak team.
"But we have avoided Spain, Italy, England. So I feel pretty confident about the group."
"We have a lot of work to do between now and then but I am really confident about our chances because of the players I've got and the attitude they've shown so far while I've been in the job."
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