Scotland’s 1972 European championship qualifying campaign started off in disastrous fashion as they were thrashed 3-0 at the hands of Belgium and two weeks later they once again lost 2-0, this time to Portugal. They followed up the defeat with a 1-0 defeat against Denmark once again away from home and were out of the running for a place in Euro 72, however they did restore some pride in their final two qualification matches as they showed much more fire under new manager Tommy Docherty as they beat Portugal 2-1 at home which included a highly disputed second goal by Gemmill. Scotland faced Belgium in their final group match and they put on an outstanding performance to beat the eventual group winners, Belgium 1-0. Scotland just got better from there on as they qualified for the 1974 world cup finals with relative ease, largely thanks to two precious wins in qualifying against Denmark at home and away. They then had to beat Czechoslovakia in one of their two matches against them to secure qualification. With the score line 1-1 at Hampden, the Scots through everything at the Czechs and with twenty minutes remaining Joe Jordan scored for Scotland to ensure their place in the 1974 world cup finals.
Scotland’s pride in being the only British representatives for the 1974 world cup finals was ultimately dented by their won naivety. Their opening match against Zaire witnessed a 2-0 victory, and they looked set to storm the tournament. Their following match against Brazil was a brave 0-0 draw against the world champions. Billy Bremner was inspirational and was unfortunate not to score, as were Joe Jordan and Peter Lorimer.
Yugoslavia had previously thrashed Zaire 9-0, and with such a huge goal advantage the group looked likely to be settled on goal difference. Scotland had to beat Yugoslavia to ensure progression, however with only eight minutes remaining they fell behind, a late equalizer from Jordan was not enough to save them and Brazil’s 3-0 victory over Zaire forced Scotland out of the competition by goal difference. Strangely, Scotland was the only team in the competition to have remained unbeaten without losing a single match and they went off home early. Immediately after the world cup finals their Euro 76 qualifying campaign started off badly as Scotland were defeated at home to Spain 2-1.