Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack has backed Steve Clarke to lead Scotland to the knockout stages for the first time in a major tournament after joining the Tartan Army in Germany.
The Dons chairman has made the trip to Germany for Scotland’s opening game of Euro 2024 on Friday and he is daring to dream of a historic campaign for Clarke and his players.
Cormack said: “Steve has done a fantastic job with the team. We’ve one or two injuries but it’s a good squad of players and anything is possible.
“I’m 65 now and when you follow Scotland for almost 60 years you get used to heartbreak most of the time.
“We’re here to enjoy the experience but I fancy we can through to the knockout stages of a tournament for the first time ever.”
The Aberdeen chairman and his son Craig have made the trip from the United States to cheer on Scotland and arrived in Germany on Wednesday.
The Dons chairman told Superscoreboard: “My wife has been at me about taking our son Craig, who is now 37, away on a father-son trip and I’ve been trying to do it for 10 years.
“Last week I thought, last minute, we’d come over for the games against Germany and Switzerland.
“We flew in from Atlanta last night, got to our hotel, freshened up and what a beautiful day.”
Cormack thrilled to be part of the Tartan Army
Cormack admits it was a late call to travel to Europe but he is no stranger to cheering on the national team from the sidelines.
He said: “I was down at Hampden for so many games in the 1970s. My first away game was Wembley in 1977 where we had about 90,000 fans at Wembley invading the pitch at the end.
“I was not on the pitch I hasten to add.
“Later that year I was at Anfield for the Scotland-Wales game, the Joe Jordan experience.
“My wife and I moved to England in 1986 and my office was by Wembley. I went to a few games, the 1-0 win against England when John Robertson scored a penalty.
“I’m looking forward to it. We’ll get the train up on a five-hour journey on Sunday to Cologne to take in the Switzerland game then head home after that.
“I’ve been to a couple of games since but living in the States it has been difficult.
“When I grew up we qualified for World Cups every four years from 1974 all the way through.
“When this came about I was thinking about it and I thought ‘you know what, we might not get another chance to do this’. Hopefully we will.”
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