Somewhat a sequel idea to this one I did sometime ago regarding had Scotland won that Euro Play-off match with England. Nice to have have a football question prior before the Euros coming up! 
After that tie until now, Scotland have never made back to a major tournament and the first WC to miss out on was 2002, though looking back on the qualifying round, it was much closer than you might think. In their group of five they finished third behind Belgium and Croatia, both of whom would qualify for the finals though Scotland only missed on second pace by two points and only had one loss in the qualifying rounds against Belgium. The real butterfly here is Scotland's fourth group match at home to Belgium in which Scotland blew a 2-0 lead for the Belgians to claw the game back to draw 2-2 with a very late equaliser at the end. Had Scotland not blown it by drawing that game to hold on to win, I feel that things would have ended up differently if results remain the same in the group.
If that's the case, Scotland would have finished in the runners up spot where they would have faced the Czechs in the Play-off. Win that two legged affair and Scotland will be off to the World Cup and would have ended up in a half decent group with co-hosts Japan, Russia and Tunisia. Craig Brown likely stays on for one last tournament with Scotland here before bowing out Question is how would have Scotland got on and how might this affect the national team going forward, maybe butterflying the Berti Vogts era with Brown as mentioned before staying on a bit longer and then what for going forward for 2004 and 2006?
After that tie until now, Scotland have never made back to a major tournament and the first WC to miss out on was 2002, though looking back on the qualifying round, it was much closer than you might think. In their group of five they finished third behind Belgium and Croatia, both of whom would qualify for the finals though Scotland only missed on second pace by two points and only had one loss in the qualifying rounds against Belgium. The real butterfly here is Scotland's fourth group match at home to Belgium in which Scotland blew a 2-0 lead for the Belgians to claw the game back to draw 2-2 with a very late equaliser at the end. Had Scotland not blown it by drawing that game to hold on to win, I feel that things would have ended up differently if results remain the same in the group.
If that's the case, Scotland would have finished in the runners up spot where they would have faced the Czechs in the Play-off. Win that two legged affair and Scotland will be off to the World Cup and would have ended up in a half decent group with co-hosts Japan, Russia and Tunisia. Craig Brown likely stays on for one last tournament with Scotland here before bowing out Question is how would have Scotland got on and how might this affect the national team going forward, maybe butterflying the Berti Vogts era with Brown as mentioned before staying on a bit longer and then what for going forward for 2004 and 2006?