Willie Miller column: Scotland turned up the heat and quality for historic win in Serbia

The performance in Belgrade to secure Euro 2020 qualification was as good as I have seen by a Scotland team for many years.

Their achievement will have given the entire nation a huge lift.

Facing England, Croatia and the Czech Republic in next summer’s finals is now a mouth-watering prospect.

If I was a player I would be relishing the opportunity to go up against teams of that stature on such a huge stage.

Hopefully Scotland can also go on to add World Cup qualification under Clarke as well.

They are certainly on the right track, having gone nine games unbeaten, while also improving with each one.

Since taking on the job last year, the manager has done better than we could have hoped.

I thought Clarke would ensure Scotland were organised, disciplined and hard to beat.

However, Scotland weren’t just difficult to beat in Belgrade – they were the better team and played the better football.

They created the best chances and thoroughly deserved their victory.

After the 5-3 penalty shootout defeat of Israel in the semi-final we had to endure that drama yet again.

And to score 10 penalties out of 10 is incredible.

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I don’t think I would have seen that in my time – Scottish players taking the pressure as they did in both games and coming out on top.

Their courage, grit and belief shone through.

I cannot speak highly enough of their attitude and quality of play.

In Belgrade we saw by far the best performance under Clarke.

It would have been a tragedy if Scotland had missed out on the Euros when the Group D games are to be played at Hampden and Wembley.

There is a generation of excellent Scottish players who never achieved qualification for a tournament.

You don’t want to finish your career after 20 years and look back without having played in a World Cup or Euro championships.

Now this young Scotland squad have that to look forward to.

It had been building up to that level of performance in Belgrade as there has been a steady progression since the disappointment of the early defeats to Russia and Belgium when Clarke first took over.

He took that on the chin and kept things calm.

Clarke worked on the new formation, which surprised me and probably most observers.

I expected him to go with a 4-4-1-1, which he has been known to play.

However, he has gone with a back three and, as we have seen in recent games, that formation is working.

The shape was good against Serbia and the wing backs played a high line.

It wasn’t anything like a back five, it was definitely a back three.

The three were very good defensively and on the ball.

The front three of Dykes, Christie and McGinn were outstanding and gave everything they had.

It wasn’t a performance I was expecting, to be honest, as I thought Serbia would take the game to Scotland.

It was exactly the opposite as Scotland were on the front foot right from the start and dominating possession.

Scotland created a number of chances, particularly in the second half.

The noises coming out of the Scotland dressing room were positive, but we have all seen that film before.

We have heard that rhetoric before, but it has never amounted to anything.

But they seized their moment in Belgrade.