Yorkshire Tartan Army

The draw for the European Championship qualifiers was made this morning and Scotland have been drawn in Group I along with Spain, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Liechtenstein.

It is another smaller group with only 5 teams in total, which should in theory enable the fixtures to be more spread out over the 13 month campaign, with less double headers than would have been the case with a 6 team group. Overall, it's a good group with some familiar faces in Lithuania and the Czech Republic and a new team that we haven't faced before in Liechtenstein which should leave us with a good chance of getting a play-off spot, with Spain heavy favourites to win the group.

  Spain:

Reigning European Champions and amongst the favourites for the World Cup, and will be huge favourites to win the group and gain the automatic qualifying spots. Possess world class players throughout the team, with players such as Torres, Villa, Iniesta and Xavi to name a few. Anything from the two matches v Spain will be a bonus although our best chance may be to play them early as they may be affected by their performance in the World Cup which may give us a slight chance.

  Czech Republic:

One of the better draws from the 2nd pot that we could have drawn after their recent poor performance in the World Cup qualifying, and they're going through a slight transitional phase. Several players were banned in their own version of the "Boozegate" scandal and are not as dangerous as they once were. However, they are still a very good team and qualification could depend on our performances against the Czechs as both sides will be eyeing second spot and next month's friendly should give an early indicator of the level of both teams.

  Lithuania:

We face the Lithuanians for the third Euro campaign in a row so there will be little surprises against Baltic side. During the last campaign we won both matches but they were far from comfortable and it won't be easy this time around either, however if we play as well as we can then we should be able to gain 6 points from these two games, although this is Scotland we're talking about! The away result could depend on the timing of the fixture and they are tricky opponents who could well take points from the Czechs which would suit us if we were able to gain the full return from these games.

  Liechtenstein:

Ranked a lowly 153 in the latest FIFA rankings, it's highly likely that Liechtenstein will end the campaign on 0 points. as they have an extremely poor record at international level. The biggest problem with facing Liectenstein could well be securing tickets for the away match, with Vaduz's Rheinpark Stadion having a small capacity of 6,127 and Vaduz having limited accommodation options, this one could be tricky to get to. Having said that, we should win both matches comfortably and the only downside of having a real minnow such as Liechtenstein in the group as it effectively makes it a 4 team group as every side will be expected to win comfortably against them.

Overall it's a good group for us with some winnable ties, and at this point we should be confident of gaining a play-off place. I can see Spain winning the group quite comfortably, with a fight between us and the Czech Republic for the play-off spot. However, this is Scotland we're talking about and it wouldn't be us if we did everything straight forward and it should be an exciting group and hopefully we can end our 14 years in the wilderness by getting through to Poland and Ukraine.