10 times Scotland has faced last game shootout as Euro 2024 hopes hang on a Hungary thread

If you say it quickly then it sounds simple. Beat Hungary on Sunday in their final Euro 2024 Group A game and Scotland’s 70-year wait to reach the knockout stage of a major tournament is over.

But that very statistic means history tells us it’s never that easy. Especially with it comes to Scotland. We usually always do things the hard way. Actually, qualification was straightforward for once but when it comes to being in with the big boys we have always come up that little bit short - and usually in the final group game.

With UEFA having expanded the European Championships for the last two two tournaments which has allowed the four best third placed teams to qualify it has made reaching the last-16 that little bit easier. But it didn’t help Scotland last time out three years ago when, after a battling draw against eventual finalists and the Auld Enemy England at Wembley, Steve Clarke’s side went down to Croatia at Hampden. That came after an opening group game defeat to the Czech Republic. Scotland have played at 11 major tournaments and on all but one of those occasions - the 1992 European Championships in Sweden when Scotland beat the CIS 3-0 in the dead rubber - the final game has had something riding on it. But our record (and luck) has been wretched. Here, Record Sport takes a look back.

1954 WORLD CUP: SCOTLAND 0-7 Uruguay

In a different format, Scotland only played two group stage games in their first ever World Cup and were hammered by the world champions in Basel in front of 34,000 after being woefully under-prepared.

1958 WORLD CUP: SCOTLAND 1-2 France

After a draw with Austria and defeat to Paraguay, Scotland needed to beat France in Orebro, but were outdone after Just Fontaine scored one of his 13