How Scotland's World Cup play-off stirs particular memories of Australia for Celtic's Ange Postecoglou

Scotland may only have been consuming the full football focus of Ange Postecoglou for the past year.

Celtic's Ange Postecoglou has "vivid" recollections of Scotland's last World Cup play-off 37 years ago - because he attended it, as a 20-year-old. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

However, the Celtic manager’s current abode played an unwanted role in an event burned into his memory – one called to mind by Scotland’s World Cup play-off against Ukraine on Wednesday. Since losing a one-off decider to Czechoslovakia in 1961, Scotland have only appeared in one World Cup play-off. And no-one needs to remind Postecoglou of the circumstances surrounding the two-legged tie with Australia in 1985 that earned Scotland a fifth straight appearance in the World Cup finals, held in Mexico the following year. A 2-0 home win at Hampden in late November and a scoreless draw down under a fortnight later also ensured that 1974 remained Australia’s only appearance at a World Cup until that point. A conclusion that Postecoglou witnessed first hand.

“It was in my hometown in Melbourne. We gave you a run for your money. It was a massive deal at the time,” he said. “There was a whole range of things. Unfortunately, the great Jock [Stein] had just passed away the game before and Sir Alex took over for the two games, so there was a range of story lines. It was a big occasion and I was at the game because Melbourne is my home town. It was a tight game and I remember it vividly."

And remember it bitterly, with Australia – who he would lead to two World Cups solely through their endeavours in an Oceania group – in 1985 required to contest a play-off subsequent to topping their qualifying group. "We thought that was unfair for a long time,” Postecoglou said. “We played European opposition that time, other times we played South American sides. We played Uruguay a couple of times. It was the reason that Australia wanted to move to Asia, so we had more of a World Cup qualifying campaign. In the past it always came down to two games because we would get through Oceania fairly comfortably – apart from maybe New Zealand – so for us as a nation it was the natural next step in our development because we knew Asia was getting stronger and having a strong campaign where you played 12 to 14 games was much better than it coming down to just two. In 2010, 2014, 2018, the last three were all through Asia. It was 2006 that was the last time we went to a play-off, and that was with Uruguay."

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