Attacker Steven Naismith believes Scotland can beat England at Hampden on Saturday and inflict on the Three Lions what would be only their second World Cup qualifying defeat in 17 years.
England have lost just one World Cup qualifier this century – a 1-0 defeat by Germany in 2000.
Scotland kick-started their campaign to reach next year’s finals in Russia by beating Slovenia 1-0 in Glasgow in March – thanks to Chris Martin’s late goal. The Scots are fourth in Group F – six points behind leaders England.
Gareth Southgate’s side recorded a 3-0 win against Gordon Strachan’s Scotland at Wembley last November, but Naismith is optimistic.
The Scotland and Norwich City forward said: “England have quality players performing at the highest level but they are not unbeatable. My mindset has never been that I come up against someone and think he’s too good for me. If I’ve not had a good game, it’s more about what I did wrong than what he did well. That’s the mentality of most of this squad.
“We’ll have our gameplan and we’ll know the areas where we can hurt them but we’ll need to be solid defensively to have a chance.
“The scoreline at Wembley looks an easy win for England but we had our chances. We were unfortunate with them and, although we take positives from that match, it was more the last result against Slovenia. That changes everything. If we had come away with a draw, it would have been all doom and gloom, whereas we got the win with a late goal and that might be the turning point.”
Naismith has two years left to run on his contract at Norwich but has been linked with a move back to Rangers. But the 30-year-old says his sole focus is on helping Scotland record a memorable victory this weekend.
He added: “I have 46 caps and 50 is obviously a target. It’s a special number with the Hall of Fame and everything that comes with it. The main thing is about playing and going away with your country, seeing the atmosphere at games, playing in them and getting to a tournament at the end of it all. The 50 caps would be an added extra.
“Getting that and qualifying from this campaign would be lovely but you have to get picked first and take it from there. Scotland has influenced my career the whole way through. It did at times when I was at Everton and I wasn’t in the team, the manager made it clear it would be harder to play for Scotland, so it does have an impact.
“Probably the past year was the toughest from a Scotland point of view but I’ve come on in the last game against Slovenia and played well, so I’ll keep going. I love it and will do it until I’m not wanted.”
“As you get older, you have to think of everything and you want to prolong your career for as long as possible.”
