Callum McGregor reveals Celtic pelters Joe Hart still gets over Griffiths free kick double as he nears landmark cap

We used to call it being gallus. But with Callum McGregor it merely comes across as a man comfortable in his own skin and with the players he knows he has around him in a Scotland shirt.

McGregor, who will match Denis Law’s cap count of 55 while overtaking Billy Bremner, Graeme Souness and George Young against England on Tuesday, was asked a simple enough question. “Would you sacrifice a win over the Auld Enemy for the guarantee of a Norway-Georgia draw that would send you to the Euros?”

McGregor didn’t mull it over, not even for a second. “That’s an easy one – us beating England,” he said. “Because then we can just win the next game and we will qualify anyway.” The fact the next one is Spain in Seville a month tonight clearly leaves the Scotland midfielder completely unfazed. That’s what five wins on the spin in the qualifiers does for the confidence.

He said: “It doesn’t really matter when you qualify, you have got to get enough points. If that happens on Tuesday night, then great. But I would much rather win the game I am playing in, especially when it is such a big fixture. We then have three more games to qualify after that and we will deal with that when it comes.”

McGregor was six when Scotland last beat England in 1999. He doesn’t remember a thing about it but admits his dad was always drumming into him the importance of these matches.

And having played in the 0-0 draw at Wembley two years ago in the Euros, he’d dearly love to go one better. He smiled and said: “I don’t remember that win. I would have been running about playing football somewhere.

“But, of course, you see the Scotland-England divide, it is always there in all aspects of life. You see that. My dad never shuts up talking about the Scotland v