Magnificent Scotland on the edge of Euro glory

SCOTLAND were last night tantalisingly close to securing a place in Germany after blowing away Cyprus in the first half in Larnaca.

An outstanding team display saw Steve Clarke’s side run up a three-goal lead at the break through Scott McTominay, Ryan Porteous and John McGinn.

The victory maintained Scotland’s perfect start to the Euro campaign with qualification on Tuesday night now hinging on the game between Norway and Georgia in Oslo being drawn.

But even if that result doesn’t go the way of Clarke’s side on the night they face England in a friendly at Hampden, they have three remaining games against Spain, Georgia and Norway to get the job done.

Nine points ahead of a Spain team who thrashed Georgia 7-1 away, albeit having played two games more, Clarke’s men will have every chance of topping the section if they can take a positive result away from Seville next month.

Ryan Porteous scores to make it 2-0

Goalscorer McGinn insisted the squad wouldn’t get carried away as they await the final step for qualification.

‘It was a really important win,’ said the Aston Villa man. ‘We’ve tried to keep a lid on the reactions and the celebrations for tonight.

‘We know we’re close, but we’re not there yet. We need to be responsible, keep our mature heads on.

‘We’re excited, there’s no doubt about that. Tonight is a huge win. It’s five wins from five and that’s the main talking point.

‘The focus from us, we have probably made a bit of history and we’re probably mathematically one or two points away.

‘The job can be sealed on Tuesday but we have a really exciting game to take our minds off that.

‘If we were able to qualify during that night, then that would be even more special. But we are not quite there yet.

‘Only our wee country could mess it up from here. So we need to stay calm as much as possible. We’ll let the fans get carried away, I’m sure they’ll drink Cyprus dry.

‘We’ll go back, we’ll have our summer fruits and prepare for Tuesday.’

Despite barely featuring for Manchester United this season, McTominay was delighted to play a part in moving one step closer to qualification for the finals and said: ‘I just want to make people in Scotland happy, that’s my job, and the team’s job, and I think we’re doing it well at the minute.

‘We’ve got a really good squad, full of great characters. We’ve got to keep our feet on the ground, keep trying to win games.

‘The job’s not finished, we need to really push — we don’t want to lose our unbeaten streak.’