McManus in touch with the dream even at this early stage
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Leading Scotland to the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010 would fulfil the childhood dream of Celtic’s Stephen McManus.
It is 10 years since Scotland reached the finals of a major tournament but McManus believes there is renewed optimism in the squad after the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign was ended only by defeat by Italy in the final game.
Macedonia are Scotland's Group 9 qualifying opponents today and McManus, who is set to captain his country in Skopje, says the squad is ready for a strong challenge in a group which also contains Holland, Iceland and Norway.
He said: “It is special for me to be skipper and wear the armband and the strip. You never know what’s round the corner. Every game you play could be your last, so you want to make the most of it. The World Cup is what you dream of when you first start out. The first one I remember is Italia 90.
“It is where the best players in the world play and if you are part of that it is a highlight for any player.
“We haven’t been there since 1998, so it would be great if we could get there. It is like the Champions League. You never ever doubt your own ability but you wonder if you can play at that level.
“You wonder if you are brave enough and strong enough. Technically, are you good enough? When you do it, it gives you belief.”
McManus believes we could see a much more confident Scotland after a Euro 2008 campaign in which we twice beat France.
He added: “As a nation we took a lot from the last campaign – if we had played Brazil we would have fancied ourselves.
“Everyone was on a high and that was the sort of belief we had. But we don’t want to get too carried away with ourselves at international level, especially away.
“It is going to be a really hard game in Skopje and we will do well to get anything out of it. We know it is going to be very, very warm. We played against the Czech Republic in the summer and it was really hot as well.
“But we are playing for our country, so it doesn’t matter if we are playing in heat or snow.”
