Scotland’s place at next year’s European Championships was secured with two qualifiers to spare on Sunday night following Spain’s 1-0 win over Norway in Oslo. The Scots watched the game together ahead of Tuesday night’s friendly match against France in Lille and the manager explained how it felt to achieve their ultimate goal.

“It was good,” Clarke said in his broadcast press conference. “Obviously we all sat together and watched the game, the moment when the final whistle goes and your qualification is secured is obviously a good moment. It’s not quite the same as doing it in a game situation, but we relaxed, we had a good couple of hours together, the boys sang a few songs and they were happy so hopefully they’ve recovered before tomorrow. I’m proud to be their head coach because they’ve consistently delivered for their country. I said that three years ago, this group of players are determined to be successful for Scotland and consistently they’ve shown that.”

Scotland are expected to be backed by a sizeable travelling support and Clarke is expecting them to be the talk of Germany. “I’m not sure Germany is ready for five million Scottish people to turn up,” he joked. “It seems like everybody you speak to is going to be in Germany next summer, I’m sure it won’t be five million but we’ll certainly take a big crowd.

Steve Clarke speaks to the media ahead of Scotland's friendly against France in Lille.

“Obviously we want to go there, we want to successful – what is success for Scotland? It would be the first Scottish team to come out of a group stage at a major competition so it’s something we can aspire to in the future, but lots of steps to take before we can get to that.”

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