What Scotland need to qualify for World Cup after victory over Greece as route to finals emerges

The result moves Scotland onto seven points in qualifying Group C, where they sit in second place, four points ahead of the Greeks, and level with leaders Denmark, who inflicted a 6-0 defeat on Belarus to stay top the table with a superior goal difference advantage.

Scotland went into the match in a good place after a positive start to the campaign last month with a priceless goalless draw away to Denmark in Copenhagen followed by a 2-0 win over Belarus in Hungary.

Things appeared ominous for Scotland when they fell behind to a Konstantinos Tsimikas strike after 62 minutes but Ryan Christie crucially brought the hosts level within two minutes.

Hampden then erupted with 10 minutes remaining when Lewis Ferguson fired into the roof of the net before substitute Lyndon Dykes added a third in injury-time following a goalkeeping blunder to seal the victory that keeps Scotland in the hunt for automatic qualification.

What Scotland need to qualify for the World Cup

Only the group winners will claim direct passage to the tournament in USA, Canada and Mexico next summer with the runners-up securing a play-off place.

Scotland can guarantee themselves a play-off place with a home win over Belarus on Sunday providing Greece lose to Denmark on the same night.

Such a scenario would put Clarke’s men seven points ahead of the Greeks with only six points left to play for and leave them in a straight shoot-out with Denmark for top spot.

Beating Belarus is paramount, but claiming a sizeable margin of victory could be crucial given the first tiebreaker for teams who finish level on points is goal difference. Scotland’s goal difference is currently +4 while Denmark are on +9.

Should Greece take a point or claim a victory from their trip to Denmark, then Scotland will move top of the section with a win over Belarus, but all three teams would still be competing for the top two positions with everything still to play for.

Scotland's last two fixtures see them travel to Greece on November 15 before hosting the Danes in the final qualifying match at Hampden three days later in what could be a direct shoot-out for first place and automatic qualification.

Put simply, if Scotland win their next three matches, they will qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Seven points woud likely be enough, however, with a final tally of 14 points almost always enough to secure top spot in a four-team group.

Beating Belarus and then avoiding defeat away to Greece would allow Scotland to approach their final match no worse than two points behind Denmark, who are likely to boost their goal difference when they host Belarus in their penultimate qualifier.

Scotland are now in a strong position to end 27 years of waiting for a World Cup and will want to pick up at least four points from their next two matches to ensure that no matter the results elsewhere, their destiny will be in their own hands when Denmark visit on November 18.