Liam Cooper hopes to be part of a history-making night as Scotland face Croatia in their Euro 2020 group decider at Hampden Park.
Victory for the Scots will be enough to see them qualify for the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time.
The same prize is also at stake for Croatia, who only have one point from their first two group games.
Cooper, who is in line to return to the Scotland line-up following Billy Gilmour’s Covid diagnosis, believes it is chance for the national team to make it a night to remember at Hampden.
He said: “We’ve got so much character in this group. We showed that at Wembley. We needed a reaction and we got it. I was so proud of the boys.
“But we can’t rest on that now. We’ve got to turn in an even better performance, because Croatia are such a good team – and they need to win as well. We want to improve on our performance from Wembley.
“Being back at Hampden for a night game is going to be amazing, too. The atmosphere at the first game, even with not many fans in there, was unbelievable.
“Then we go to Wembley and it sounded like we were at Hampden. With the importance of this game, I’ve got a feeling the Tartan Army are going to raise the roof.
“Our job is to give those fans something to cheer about – and send them home celebrating a bit of history.”
Cooper stressed he and the players felt safe in Scotland camp, despite Gilmour testing positive less than 48 hours before the game.
He added: “It feels 100 per cent safe in our camp. We all stick to the precautions. We wear our mask when we have to and we follow all the guidelines.
We can confirm that Billy Gilmour has tested positive for COVID-19.
Having liaised with Public Health England, Billy will now self-isolate for 10 days and therefore miss tomorrow’s UEFA EURO 2020 Group D match against Croatia at Hampden.https://t.co/lRNWvckqCK
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 21, 2021
“Dr MacLean (SFA chief medical consultant John MacLean) has been unbelievable with the lads, providing us with a lot of clarity.
“It’s just very unfortunate for Billy. We’re gutted for him and we wish him a swift return.”
The Scots are up against a team they have never lost to before, winning two and drawing three of their five meetings with Croatia.
Cooper added: “The gaffer has just told us that we have to respect them. That’s obvious, given that they were finalists in the last World Cup.
“But we have a game plan. The game plan worked against England. We’ve come up with a plan again – and it’s up to us to execute it to the best of our ability. Hopefully that’s enough to get the result we really need.
“A lot of it is about setting a quick tempo from the start. We’re a much better team when we do that, as you saw against England.”
