Steve Clarke insists he is giving no consideration to which pot Scotland end up in at Euro 2024 as he focuses on trying to end their successful qualification campaign on a high against Norway at Hampden on Sunday.
The Scots sealed their spot in Germany last month, with two games to spare, and will learn who they will face in the group stage when the draw is made in Hamburg on Saturday, December 2.
A victory by two goals or more against Norway this weekend would likely lift the Scots into pot two, while any other result is set to place them in pot three.
Given the way things are shaping up – with the likes of Albania, Hungary and Turkey among the teams on course to be in pot two – there is a school of thought among Scotland supporters that they may have a chance of an easier draw by remaining in pot three.
“Honestly, zero, I haven’t looked at it,” said Clarke when asked if he had given much consideration to the permutations. “It doesn’t concern me.
“The main objective was to be there. Pot two, pot three… it’s all speculation because you don’t know how the other games are going to pan out so we’ll go out and do our best to win the game and then we’ll decide after that whether we want to be in pot two or pot three.”
Asked how significant it would be to go to the tournament as a pot two team, Clarke said: “Not significant at all in my mind. I don’t think too much about it.
“I just want to win game to game and make sure we’re always competitive whoever we play. We were seeded in pot two in the draw for this campaign and we want to be a pot two team going into the World Cup campaign.
“If we can get to pot one, it would be great but that’s a long way away at the moment.”
Clarke’s main objective at present to is to stop a four-game run without a victory and ensure Scotland end a memorable campaign on a high at a sold-out Hampden.
“It’s always important to win,” he said. “We haven’t won for a while. We want to finish the campaign well in front of our own supporters at Hampden, so hopefully we can do that.”
That task will be made slightly easier – in theory – by the fact Norway and Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland misses the match due to an ankle injury sustained in Thursday’s friendly against Faroe Islands.
“It’s probably a little bit of mixed feelings,” Clarke said when asked about the striker’s absence. “I think for the crowd it would have been great to see a player of Erling Haaland’s standard at Hampden.
“It would have been good for the defenders to test themselves against a top striker but unfortunately he’s not fit.
“If you asked me that question me before a game that really meant something I’d probably be sitting here saying ‘yes, I’m delighted he’s not playing’ but for the game tomorrow, I think it would have been better if he played.”
Haaland gave Norway the lead with a penalty in the last meeting between the teams in Oslo in June before Scotland roared back with two goals in the closing minutes to claim arguably the most pivotal result in their qualifying campaign.
“It was a pretty dull game on a very hot, sunny afternoon,” recalled Clarke. “For us, it was about staying in the game as long as possible. Towards the end of the game I took a central defender off, went to a back four and stuck another attacking player on and thankfully it worked for us.
“We got the equaliser at a good time and almost immediately before Norway had a chance to realise what had happened we were 2-1 in front and for the section, for the qualification of Scotland, it was obviously a big moment in the tournament.”
Second-placed Scotland go into their final qualifier six points clear of third-placed Norway, who remain without a major tournament appearance since Euro 2000.
Clarke believes the fact his team were able to win their first five games, while Norway failed to win any of their first three was the main difference between the sides.
“The way the fixtures fell for us was good,” said the Scots boss. “We had three home fixtures to start and we managed to get maximum points from those fixtures.
“Going to Norway when we did and getting the 2-1 win put the qualification into our hands and fortunately we didn’t let it slip. Group football is a sprint, it’s only eight matches.
“You can’t really drop points early in the group because you put yourself under pressure later in the group. It’s normally Scotland that does that, to be fair!”
St. Louis City v Chicago Fire: Carnell warns against complacency amid unbeaten run
Bradley Carnell has warned his St. Louis City side they can't get comfortable despite a four-game unbeaten run.
Carnell's men last lost in March, since winning one and drawing three to leave St. Louis ninth in the Western Conference, just three points behind sixth-placed Austin FC.
As his team prepares to host the Chicago Fire this weekend, Carnell has cautioned his players not to become complacent.
"We can speak so many nice positives, especially with our three clean sheets in four and there are so many good moments," Carnell said.
"But I also don't want to get comfortable with that. I don't want to be used to getting draws. I don't want to hype up getting ties."
Carnell's side will look to extend their unbeaten run against a Fire team winless in four, currently 13th in the East after a poor start.
Chicago head coach Frank Klopas hopes his team don't lose faith, telling reporters: "Our focus is to continue to stay positive with the group.
"It's a process of evaluating and looking at how we can improve as a team, and then making sure once we analyse the games we look at certain things we did well and our mistakes to look to improve.
"It's a long season. I feel the team has been playing well, but we have to find a way to get points."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
St. Louis City – Joao Klauss
No St. Louis player has managed more MLS goal contributions than Klauss so far this term, scoring three and adding an assist. He will likely lead the line on Saturday and will hope to score the goals that start turning draws into wins.
Chicago Fire – Brian Gutierrez
Despite his team's poor collective start, 20-year-old midfielder Gutierrez has performed well and leads his team with three MLS goals so far this season, while also registering an assist. He will look to build on that and try to turn his side's fortunes around, starting this Saturday.
MATCH PREDICTION – ST. LOUIS WIN
St. Louis have kept clean sheets in three of their last four matches, including in the scoreless draw with the Houston Dynamo last time out. St. Louis had managed just two clean sheets in their previous 23 matches in all competitions dating back to last July.
The Fire, meanwhile, have failed to score in four straight matches. This is the fifth time Chicago have gone four or more consecutive league matches without scoring since the start of the 2021 season.
Six of St. Louis City's last eight matches have ended in draws, but home advantage should be enough to see off a struggling Chicago team on Saturday.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
St. Louis: 55.5%
Chicago: 19%
Draw: 25.5%
LA Galaxy v Real Salt Lake: Vanney encouraged ahead of top-of-the-table tussle
Greg Vanney believes the LA Galaxy are in a good spot both physically and mentally ahead of Saturday's clash with fellow Western Conference high-fliers Real Salt Lake.
The Galaxy sit third in the West through 11 matches of the season, though they have failed to win back-to-back road games against Austin FC (0-2) and the Seattle Sounders (0-0).
They are, however, unbeaten in all four of their home league games this term (two wins, two draws), and Vanney is looking forward to returning to Dignity Health Sports Park next time out.
"Physically, first and foremost, we're in a pretty good spot. We have a few guys coming back from issues that were pretty minor," Vanney said.
"It's good. We've been able to stay in that space for a while and now we're going into a busy part of the schedule we can make some choices about how we want to attack the week.
"Where are we mentally? We're good. It's nice to be home, it's a challenge to play a lot of games on the road early doors.
"We like the spot we're in and we want to keep building, but we've got to get through this tough stretch of games."
Real Salt Lake are top of the Western standings with 21 points, only losing twice in 11 league games this year.
However, they were dumped out of the U.S. Open Cup by New Mexico United on Wednesday, Pablo Mastroeni shuffling his pack for a 4-2 road loss.
"We completely tuned out," Mastroeni said after watching his team go 2-0 down within 20 minutes.
"The emotion is like, 'poor me,' and when you operate from that space, you can never think reasonably."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
LA Galaxy – Gabriel Pec
The Galaxy (12 shots) and Seattle (19) combined for 31 shots in their scoreless draw last time out.
Pec – who has two goals in 10 league appearances since joining the Galaxy in the offseason – recorded six of his team's attempts, but only hit the target once. He will be targeting an improvement here.
Real Salt Lake – Cristian Arango
Arango is the first Real Salt Lake player to contribute to at least one goal in five straight regular-season away matches, recording four goals and five assists during his streak.
He is just the second player since the start of last season to record a goal contribution in five straight MLS away matches, after the Columbus Crew's Cucho Hernandez.
MATCH PREDICTION – LA GALAXY WIN
The Galaxy have lost only one of their last 13 home matches against Real Salt Lake (nine wins, three draws) including going unbeaten through the last seven in a row.
The last two meetings in Carson have both ended level, though, after the Galaxy won nine of the previous 11 (one draw, one defeat).
However, Vanney's team have only lost one of their last 14 regular-season home matches dating back to last June, winning six and drawing six while averaging 2.2 goals per game throughout this run.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
LA Galaxy – 44.8%
Real Salt Lake – 27.8%
Draw – 27.4%
Leverkusen reach Europa League final and stretch unbeaten run with late show
Bayer Leverkusen reached the Europa League final and stretched their remarkable unbeaten run to 49 games on Thursday, Josip Stanisic scoring seven minutes into stoppage time in a dramatic 2-2 draw with Roma.
Having won last week's first leg 2-0 in Italy, Leverkusen were strong favourites to advance to this month's final in Dublin, though two Leandro Paredes penalties left them facing up to the prospect of extra time.
Paredes halved Leverkusen's aggregate lead on the stroke of half-time after Jonathan Tah fouled Sardar Azmoun, then repeated the trick following a bizarre handball from Adam Hlozek shortly after the hour mark.
However, Roma's hearts were broken as goalkeeper Mile Svilar – who was otherwise outstanding – failed to claim a routine corner and it bounced in off the unfortunate Gianluca Mancini with eight minutes of the 90 remaining.
Rather than sitting back at 2-1 up in the tie, Leverkusen chased a leveller in order to preserve their unbeaten record across all competitions this season.
It was yet another last-gasp effort that kept that record intact, with Stanisic firing into the bottom-left corner after being played through by Granit Xhaka.
Xabi Alonso's team are now unbeaten in 49 games in all competitions, breaking Benfica's previous European top-tier record of 48 matches, set between 1963 and 1965.
Leverkusen will face another Italian side in the showpiece game, after Atalanta crushed Marseille 3-0 in Bergamo to seal a 4-1 aggregate win in the other semi-final.
In-form striker Gianluca Scamacca had already rattled the crossbar when La Dea took the lead, with Ademola Lookman's strike deflecting in off the unfortunate Samuel Gigot.
Lookman then turned provider as Atalanta stretched their advantage seven minutes after the break, teeing up Matteo Ruggeri for a rasping finish into the top-right corner.
Gian Piero Gasperini's men were able to add some gloss to the scoreline at the death, with El Bilal Toure's pinpoint finish giving Pau Lopez no chance to round off a dominant win.
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