Faroe Islands striker and primary teacher John Petersen nearly taught Scotland one almighty lesson in 2002. Pic: ©SNS Group
While the importance of a strong start in a 10-game Euro 2012 qualifying group is high, a glance at Scotland’s opening game from in their last six campaigns shows it provides no guarantee to making it to the competition proper.
Six points from the opening two competitive games of Craig Levein’s reign away to Lithuania and Liechtenstein are vitally important in a group which will include games against sterner opposition in the form of Czech Republic and world champions Spain.
But what have Scotland’s starts to their qualification campaigns ever since their last participation in 1998 at the France World Cup meant towards trying, and ultimately failing, to make it on to the big stage?
In the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, Scotland lost their opening fixture for the first time since the preliminary rounds for the 1994 tournament, when Adrian Knup scored twice in a 3-1 win for Switzerland in Bern in 1992. Fast forward 16 years and Ilco Naumoski’s fifth-minute opener in the heat of Skopje condemned George Burley’s team to a 1-0 defeat. A 2-1 win against Iceland followed.
But taking six points from the opening two fixtures is no guaranteed means to success, as proven during the qualifiers for Euro 2008. The Faroe Islands were swept aside 6-0 in the opening game, followed by a 2-1 win in Lithuania shortly after.
This was the group which contained the 2006 World Cup finalists Italy and France however and, despite two wins over Les Bleus at Hampden and in Paris, a double defeat to Italy and losses to Ukraine and Georgia meant Alex McLeish’s brave side bowed out by virtue of two points.
Two years previously, Scotland got off to the worst possible start as they picked up just one point from two home matches. In their qualifying group for the 2006 World Cup, Slovenia left Hampden with a point courtesy of a 0-0 draw, before Steffen Iversen’s penalty a month later gave three points to Norway in a 1-0 win.
Going back a further two years, the opening game of the qualification competition for Euro 2004 produced one of the most infamous Scotland results in recent history. Primary school teacher John Petersen’s two early goals for the Faroe Islands were sending Berti Vogts’ team towards the worst results in their history, before Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson rescued a dismal point.
In qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, Craig Brown’s team finished three points off making it to Japan and South Korea. A strong start helped their cause, with back-to-back wins over Latvia and San Marino. But four dropped points to Belgium, together with two draws against Croatia, made it two tournaments in a row without the Scots.
Following on from their participation in the 1998 World Cup, Scotland were in pot one for the draw for the Euro 2000 qualifiers. A play-off defeat to England followed after finishing second behind Czech Republic but Scotland’s start to the campaign was strangely ominous to this year’s attempts.
A 0-0 draw in Lithuania started the campaign, followed a ridiculously narrow 3-2 home win against Estonia. The Czech Republic then came to Celtic Park and won and, despite being in control in the away game, Scotland lost 3-2 to the Czechs as they completed a 100 per cent record to reach the tournament in Holland and Belgium.
In qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, Brown's team took four points from their first two games. Eventual table toppers Austria were held 0-0 in Vienna, before Latvia were put to the sword in Riga thanks to goals from John Collins and Darren Jackson.
