Ryan Jack will have Euro 2024 thoughts at the back of his mind until next summer after Scotland’s qualifiers concluded with a 3-3 draw against Norway.
Steve Clarke’s had already qualified for the tournament in Germany before the final two Group A games in Georgia and against the Norwegians at Hampden Park.
A 2-2 draw in Tbilisi on Thursday was followed by a thrilling match against Norway on Sunday, when the 31-year-old Rangers midfielder came on as a late substitute.
The draw will take place on December 2, after which the race will be on to make Clarke’s 23-man squad.
Jack said: “We all go back to our clubs. There is obviously a lot of football to be played, everyone will have a lot of big games to play from now to then.
“It is always at the back of your mind. You are never going to just forget what we have achieved.
“It is going to give everyone motivation to play well, to play consistently for their club and do everything we can to be part of it.
“It has been a great campaign. We qualified with a couple of games to spare and that has not been done for a long time.
“We wanted to go out with wins but at the start of the campaign the most important thing was qualifying and we did that.”
It was quite a final Group A game at Hampden where Aron Donnum fired the visitors ahead in the third minute before Scotland captain John McGinn levelled with a penalty 10 minutes later.
Striker Jorgen Larsen regained Norway’s lead before an own goal by Leo Ostigard had the Scots level again before half-time.
A fine strike by Scotland midfielder Stuart Armstrong had the home side ahead for the first time but that was cancelled out by a late header from Norway substitute Mohamed Elyounoussi.
Scotland have lost only twice in total in their last two qualifying campaigns – to Spain last month and to Denmark in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which ended with Clarke’s side eventually missing out.
The Scots did make the previous Euros, albeit they could not emerge from their group which included England, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
But Jack believes that experience will be beneficial.
He said: “That (consistency) comes with belief and the confidence of getting results. The same core of the squad has been here since the last qualification.
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A moment to take it all in – The squad and staff took in a lap of honour around the Hampden pitch at full time. pic.twitter.com/EzLb8KzdhB
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 19, 2023
“We are in a good place at the minute but we need to keep that going.
“We will be going to the tournament a lot more experienced and very optimistic.
“That (Euro 2020) will help. It probably didn’t go as well as we hoped so there will be a lot of reflection on that and what we think went wrong in that tournament and hopefully we can rectify that for this one.
“Hopefully the experience we have all had, the backroom staff, the players, will stand us in good stead for the next tournament.”
