Scotland are fortunate that their hosting of the group’s top seeds should happen to have landed at the very end of the fixture list, after Denmark had already booked automatic qualification for the World Cup finals.
The absence of consequences for defeat has, with a very obvious exception which one would never wish to see repeated, been the only circumstance in which anybody has been able to get the better of Denmark over 90 minutes in a dominant 2021.
But after so many downtrodden years as the butt of international football’s every joke, forgive us if we do not apologise for this stroke of luck. Whatever break comes the way of Scotland’s national team is long overdue and far outweighed by its tales of woe.
In any case, the mere date on the calendar was not in itself enough to secure the win Scotland craved. The team still had to put in a determined and high-quality performance to get the better of one of the most in-form national squads on the planet, and complete their own buccaneering run into the play-offs.
And it remains to be seen how rich a crop Steve Clarke can harvest from the seed planted by coincidence. There are still plenty of dangerous opponents among the list of potential Hampden visitors – and some generational superstars could lie in wait in a possible play-off final.
But the World Cup dream clearly burns brighter now than it did prior to kick-off, when results elsewhere had squeezed Scotland out of the seeded side of the semi-final draw.
This could have been the night where Scotland came back to Earth with a bump. Instead the only thunderous descent was that of John Souttar’s momentous rear end crashing to the turf in celebration of his ultimately decisive goal, and the waves are reverberating around Europe.
