Qualifying counts most for Scots

Graeme Souness has stressed the importance of Scotland qualifying for the World Cup over beating England.

Gordon Strachan’s side began their qualifying campaign last month with a 5-1 win in Malta and host Lithuania on Saturday before traveling to Slovakia for their next two qualifiers.

Next up after that is a meeting with England at Wembley and the Scots will be keen to replicate their 1-0 success there when the teams last met competitively in 1999.

Souness believes that can happen,  but would readily accept defeats in both games against them in favour of ending the country’s 20-year wait to get back to a major tournament.

The former Rangers and Liverpool manager, capped 54 times, said: “Gordon will try to get the message across that this is about three points.

“You can’t afford to get caught up in the Auld Enemy thing. You would take losing to them twice and winning every other game and getting there.

“It is a bit like when I went to Ibrox and said I don’t mind losing to Celtic if we win the league and [people said] …

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