Scotland facing familiar foes, formidable defence and past embarrassment in 2026 World Cup bid

Scotland's route to the 2026 World Cup has become clearer following Friday's draw for European qualifying.

Steve Clarke's side know they will be up against Greece and Belarus in Group C alongside the loser of the Nations League quarter-final tie between Portugal and Denmark due to be played in March.

Here is a closer look at the teams standing between Scotland and a place in the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico.

Portugal

Familiar foes from the Nations League A campaign just past, the prospect of facing Portugal again shouldn't strike fear into the hearts of the Tartan Army. While currently the sixth-best team in the world according to the Fifa rankings, Portugal were held to a goalless draw at Hampden in October just a month after an 89th minute winner from Cristiano Ronaldo denied Scotland a deserved point in Lisbon. Ronaldo will have turned 40 by the time the World Cup qualifiers kick off, but he will undoubtedly remain one of the largest threats should Portugal end up in Scotland's group. The two nations have faced each other 17 times with Portugal winning nine to Scotland's four.

Cristiano Ronaldo could not find a way past Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon in the goalless draw at Hampden in October. Cr: SNS Group. | SNS Group

Denmark

With Portugal favourites to win their Nations League quarter-final, Denmark appear more likely to join Scotland for a second World Cup qualifying campaign in a row. The two sides cancelled each other out in qualifying for Qatar 2022 with a 2-0 home win apiece as Denmark topped the group ahead of Scotland, who went on to lose their play-off semi-final to Ukraine. Remarkably, there has never been a draw between the sides in 18 previous meetings with Scotland edging the head-to-head, 11 wins to Denmark's seven. The Danes are one of the lowest ranked top seeds - currently sitting 21st in the Fifa world rankings - but boast a £72million striker in Manchester United's Rasmus Hojlund while the majority of their squad play in one of Europe's top five leagues.

Greece

Scotland have not faced Greece since 1995 when an Ally McCoist header sealed a 1-0 win at Hampden but will now meet them four times next year. First up is the two-legged Nations League play-off tie in March where the teams will be able to size each other up before going head-to-head in World Cup qualification. The Greeks are 39th in the Fifa world rankings - six places above Scotland - after an impressive Nations League B campaign which included a 2-1 win over England at Wembley. They lost the reverse fixture in Athens 3-0 with their only other defeats in the past two years coming against France, Germany and the Netherlands. The Greeks have not made it to a major finals since the World Cup in 2014, where they reached the last 16. Managed by Ivan Jovanovic, Greece are particularly strong in defence where West Ham United centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos forms a formidable partnership with Wolfsburg's Konstantinos Koulierakis.

Belarus

Scotland do not have fond memories of their last meetings with Belarus after a goalless draw in Minsk was followed by an embarrassing 1-0 defeat for Walter Smith's side at Hampden in the failed qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup. Belarus have never qualified for a World Cup finals and are currently ranked 98th by Fifa. Several members of their squad come from the Dinamo Minsk side defeated by Hearts in the Conference League in October.