Martin O’Neill has given his view on Scotland’s winner-takes-all World Cup showdown with Denmark where three Celts could be in action…
Anthony Ralston and Kieran Tierney are likely to feature for Scotland from the bench, as Kasper Schmeichel prepares to guard the net for Denmark in what will almost certainly be a high-pressure encounter at Hampden this evening.
The Celtic interim manager addressed the club media channels at Lennoxtown yesterday afternoon before the final round of international fixtures takes place tonight, monitoring the match both from a neutral standpoint and as a coach keen to see his squad come back unscathed.
With injuries already limiting Celtic’s options, O’Neill is especially eager to avoid any additional setbacks from players returning from national team commitments. Colby Donovan returned to Lennoxtown yesterday to have his ankle injury, picked up while on Scotland U21 duty, assessed by the club.
Tonight the stakes could hardly be higher. Scotland have managed to wriggle into a situation where a win would seal their spot at next summer’s World Cup – a prospect that looked far from likely at the start of the campaign.
Denmark still pose a major threat, but the task for Steve Clarke’s men is relatively straightforward – just win. Kasper Schmeichel and his Danish teammates will be kicking themselves after drawing 2-2 with Belarus on Saturday, a result which could come back to haunt them if defeated tonight in Glasgow. That would see Denmark and not Scotland dropping into the play-offs in March.
O’Neill has acknowledged the magnitude of the game, also highlighting the importance of the contest for the players taking part in the fixture, particularly those with links to Celtic.
It will be Kasper’s last chance to reach a World Cup in his career. Whilst KT and Ralston will undoubtedly be in Clarke’s squad for USA, Mexico and Canada next summer should Scotland make it.
Speaking to Celtic TV, O’Neill said: “Well, that’d be the first thing I’d be thinking about – [hoping all the Celtic players come out of it unscathed]obviously, as a club manager. But you’re dead right. A big, big game. Scotland’s still there now.
“And I think, I might be totally wrong about this, but I think that if you were to ask Scotland to begin with, certainly maybe the supporters, they’d have taken having to win at Hampden to qualify for the World Cup.
“I think they would have taken that way back when the group opened up in the first place. So winning at Hampden last year, you qualify, and you’re in the World Cup in the summertime. So I think they would have taken that.”
A generation of Scots have yet to see their nation at a World Cup. Scotland have the chance to do something special tonight. At a packed out Hampden as well. It’s sure to be a raucous evening in the Southside of Glasgow.
And the best of luck to Scotland from everyone on The Celtic Star team!
Six years in the making.
Twenty-seven years of waiting.
This is what tonight means to us.#SCODEN pic.twitter.com/L7Br3ZBPv7— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 18, 2025
