{"id":578338,"date":"2025-11-18T13:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T13:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/578338\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T13:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T13:20:17","slug":"we-know-we-can-do-it-scotland-fan-excited-for-winner-takes-all-world-cup-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/578338\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We know we can do it\u2019 \u2013 Scotland fan excited for winner-takes-all World Cup clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>James Milne (right) with wife Katie (left) and bairns Ilyanna and Freddie as they get ready for the huge Scotland game at Hampden tonight.<\/p>\n<p><b>SCOTLAND football fan James Milne has already started saving up money to head to the World Cup in North America next year \u2013 the team just need to get there now.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Shetland man\u2019s dreams may become reality tonight (Tuesday) as he heads to Glasgow to watch Scotland face Denmark at Hampden for a \u2018winner takes all\u2019 World Cup qualifying match.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes are massive. If Scotland win, they will automatically book their place in a World Cup for the first time since 1998.<\/p>\n<p>If they do not win, Denmark will top the qualifying group and go through \u2013 leaving Scotland with the task of play-offs instead to qualify, against some potentially tricky opponents.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Shetland News ahead of the big match, Milne \u2013 who has followed the team across the globe for years \u2013 described Scotland\u2019s topsy-turvy World Cup qualifying campaign as a \u201crollercoaster\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGetting wins when playing poorly instead of playing good and getting nothing out of it has caused different emotions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland\u2019s qualifying campaign opened in September with a 0-0 draw away to Denmark, before a two-nil victory against Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>There was then a 3-1 victory against Greece at Hampden last month, despite a poor performance, before Scotland beat Belarus again, this time 2-1.<\/p>\n<p>At the weekend Scotland lost 3-2 away to Greece but Denmark\u2019s surprise draw against Belarus left Steve Clarke\u2019s men within touching distance of automatic qualification.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re now in the last game, at home, knowing a win will send us to the biggest competition in the world,\u201d Milne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2025\/11\/18\/know-scotland-fan-excited-winner\/\" title=\"Sign in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Sign in<\/strong><\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added that after heading to Germany to see Scotland play in Euro 2024, the \u201cnext natural step in progression is the World Cup\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It would be a fair old trip, considering the matches are being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>But Milne said the Tartan Army were \u201cloved\u201d in Germany and would be welcomed in North America too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo bring that atmosphere to the Americas would be a dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started saving right away for the trip \u2013 I had a feeling we may just get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tonight\u2019s game also has extra significance for Milne, as his wife and children will be accompanying him for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve been practising Flower of Scotland \u2026 it brings a tear to my eye even saying that!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scotland last played at the World Cup in France 1998, where they infamously went up against heavyweights Brazil in the opening match and held the game at 1-1 until an own goal with 15 minutes remaining saw the Samba superstars pick up the win.<\/p>\n<p>After a truly barren run of failing to qualify for any international tournaments for two decades, Scotland managed to grab a place at Euro 2020, which was held in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, before qualifying for Euro 2024 too.<\/p>\n<p>But the World Cup is the biggie, and next year\u2019s tournament is slightly different in that it is expanding from 32 to 48 teams.<\/p>\n<p>So, what is Milne\u2019s all-important prediction for the game tonight? He reckons Scotland can do it \u2013 a scrappy game, perhaps, with the team coming from behind to win 2-1 or 3-1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s not a single fan going tonight expecting us to lie down, after they drew with Belarus, we know we can do it,\u201d Milne said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have the safety net of the play-offs, but we want to get this done and dusted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shetland News<\/strong> is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Removal of third-party ads;<\/li>\n<li>Bookmark posts to read later;<\/li>\n<li>Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;<\/li>\n<li>Hide membership messages;<\/li>\n<li>Comments open for discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of <strong>Shetland News<\/strong> by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2025\/11\/18\/know-scotland-fan-excited-winner\/\" title=\"Sign in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Sign in<\/strong><\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Milne (right) with wife Katie (left) and bairns Ilyanna and Freddie as they get ready for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[27765,748,94,4884,712,40317,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-578338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-army","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-tartan","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115570909970848958","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}