PASSIONS run high whenever Scotland play England at football regardless of the circumstances. A friendly between the two ancient adversaries will always draw a sell-out crowd and generate a febrile atmosphere. Pit them against each other in a meaningful fixture and the intensity of the encounter is multiplied tenfold. 

Steve Clarke, whose team will take on the Gareth Southgate’s side in their second Euro 2020 match at Wembley this evening, may not have been directly involved in the world-famous fixture in any capacity in the past.

However, the Ayrshireman has been involved in the game in his homeland long enough, as a fan, as a player, as a coach, to appreciate just how much success matters to the country. He knows the 11 men he selects to play will carry the hopes of the nation on their shoulders. He understands they will be hailed as heroes if they do well and savaged if they fail to perform.

That the oldest international in the sport arouses strong emotions in people was driven home to him earlier this month when an off-the-cuff comment in a newspaper interview he did caused a right old stooshie in the Clarke household.

“I stated that my two boys were English,” said the former Chelsea player. “Wow, that was a mistake! My eldest, John, was straight on the phone to me after he read that and said: ‘We’re not English, it’s just where we were born’.

“He made the point that they’ve got a Scottish mum and a Scottish dad - that they’ve all got Scottish blood. So I need to clear that one up. Let me get it right, my kids are Scottish. 

“They’ll all be at Wembley on Friday night along with my grandkids and wife. They’re looking forward it. They can’t wait. It’ll be a great occasion.”

There is huge pressure on Scotland to get a result this evening following their desperately disappointing 2-0 defeat to the Czech Republic at Hampden on Monday afternoon. Clarke targeted a place in the last 16 before the tournament got underway. His men need a draw or a victory to boost their hopes of progressing. 

The 57-year-old, though, will relish every minute of the experience despite the demands there are on him to deliver. He has waited a long time for it. The former full-back had been poised to play against the auld enemy back in 1987 when disaster struck and robbed him of his place. That disappointment has stayed with him. 

“I twisted my ankle in training before the game,” he said. “It was the Rous Cup after the old Home Internationals had finished. I was going to start, I was pretty sure I was going to start. 

“I would need to check with Andy Roxburgh, but I was pretty sure I was in from the start going by the way we’d be shaping up. Put it this way, everything we were shown in training suggested I was going to start. 

“But I just twisted my ankle. I guess the Hampden pitch wasn’t as good in those days as it is now because I just went over on it with no-one near me. So that was me. I sat on the bench instead all strapped up instead of playing against England. That was a painful one."

Kieran Tierney, the Arsenal defender who has arguably been the best Scotland player this season, found himself in the same situation on Monday when a calf strain that he suffered in training ruled him out of the Czech match. But he has recovered and will take his place in the starting line-up at eight o’clock this evening.

Clarke knows having the £25m man, who is widely considered to be one of the best left backs in the world, never mind England, since moving south two years ago, involved will help the national team to get the desired result. But he sees no reason why everyone in his squad can’t have confidence. 

“The players have to believe in themselves,” he said. “That is the first criteria. They are all good players, they are all playing at a really good level.

“A lot of them are team mates with some of the lads in the England squad as well. They are used to seeing them on the pitch, they are used to seeing each other play big games. So I wouldn’t think they wouldn’t have that self-belief to believe they can go there and have that belief to get a good result.”

Clarke has no concerns about John McGinn of Aston Villa, Scott McTominay of Manchester United, Andy Robertson of Liverpool or Tierney of Arsenal being overwhelmed by the enormity of the occasion. But he knows that he will not require to get his charges fired up in the dressing room before kick-off.

“It is a game with a lot of historical significance, it is a game that the players all want to play in,” he said.

“What we have to do is make sure the players have prepared properly for it. In terms of the team talk, the team talk is to go through the tactical side of the game, the organisational side of the game. The actual nuts and blots of getting the players up for the game is really easy because we know it’s a big game.”

Losing to joint Euro 2020 favourites England tonight will be excruciating for the Scotland players and their supporters. It will, however, by no means make reaching the knockout rounds an impossibility. Far from it.

Back at Euro 2016 – the first European Championship to involve 24 teams and have a last 16 – both Northern Ireland and eventual winners Portugal advanced despite only having three points. They went through because they had a superior goal difference to Turkey and Albania. 

But England v Scotland is of far greater importance for many. Some members of the Tartan Army would rather see their heroes achieve their first win in the world-famous fixture at Wembley since the Euro 2000 play-off match way back in 1999 than progress beyond the group stages for the first time in their history.

If Clarke gets his team selection and his tactics right, if Robertson and his team mates all perform at their very best, if they convert their scoring opportunities and if the defence can nullify Harry Kane, they can defy the odds and give the country reason to rejoice.