{"id":992994,"date":"2026-05-29T21:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/992994\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T21:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:26:16","slug":"on-the-beach-miami-braced-for-scotland-invasion-after-lionel-messi-mania-as-tartan-army-are-backed-to-witness-history-at-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/992994\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018On the beach\u2019 &#8211; Miami braced for Scotland invasion after Lionel Messi mania as Tartan Army are backed to witness history at 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scotland are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en\/lists\/bank-of-scotland-unveils-scott-mctominay-gbp20-note-inspired-by-his-superb-overhead-kick-goal-vs-denmark-in-world-cup-qualifying\/blt41c8d6b584c6e965\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">heading to their first World Cup of the 21st century<\/a>, having last qualified for FIFA\u2019s flagship event in 1998. They have previously graced eight tournaments, dating back to their debut outing in 1954.<\/p>\n<p>Some memorable moments have been savoured down the years &#8211; such as Archie Gemmill\u2019s iconic goal against the Netherlands in 1978 &#8211; but the Scots have never been able to make it beyond the group stages and into the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n<p>There is the potential for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en\/lists\/scotland-squad-world-cup-2026\/blt17146ecc000ebdc0\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Steve Clarke\u2019s class of 2026<\/a> to change all of that, with Snodgrass adding when asked if he believes record books will be rewritten: \u201cI\u2019m confident that they could learn from where they are in terms of having expectation that they\u2019re going to go and qualify out of their group. I don&#8217;t really know until the games start and see what turns up. I\u2019d love them to do it. I would absolutely be delighted for them to do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt couldn&#8217;t happen to a better bunch of boys and staff. They\u2019ve gone through so many highs and so many low points but they\u2019ve brought some great memories to the country. They\u2019re part of that team that\u2019s sort of rejuvenating the hope and belief to get us back to tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the fans are having expectations. The Euros was great because we got there but now we need to go and put some results together and there\u2019s no better way to do it starting against Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland are heading to their first World Cup of the 21st century, having last qualified for FIFA\u2019s flagship&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":992995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[2106,748,2915,4884,138589,275752,712,275753,16,15,1514],"class_list":["post-992994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-brazil","tag-britain","tag-exclusive","tag-great-britain","tag-l-messi","tag-s-clarke","tag-scotland","tag-scotland-vs-brazil","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116659984355507103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992994","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=992994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}