World Cup 2022: Find out more about Scotland's qualifying opponents

Scotland have been drawn with unfamiliar and familiar foes in their World Cup qualifying group as they target a place at the 2022 finals in Qatar.

Denmark, Austria, Israel, Faroe Islands and Moldova make up Group F with Steve Clarke's side.

Here, BBC Scotland looks at the initial opponents who stand between the Scots and a first World Cup finals since 1998 - there may be play-off opponents still to come of course.

Denmark

Current Fifa ranking: 12

The Danes boast a squad full of familiar names who ply their trade in some of Europe's top leagues. Kasper Schmeichel, Christian Eriksen and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg are just a few of those.

It was Eriksen's penalty that gave Denmark victory over England at Wembley in the recent Nations League matches, with Kasper Hjulmand's side finishing second in Group A2 behind Belgium and above the English.

Hjulmand recently took over from the experienced Age Hareide, who was due to leave after the Euro 2020 finals before they were postponed until next year. In his first eight games in charge, Hjulmand has won five, drawn one and lost twice.

You have to go back to the mid-1980s for a competitive match between Denmark and Scotland but more recently, the Scots have beaten the Danes in two friendly matches at Hampden.

Austria

Ranking: 23

Scotland overcame Austria in their last successful World Cup qualifying campaign, so perhaps that's a good omen. Since then, there have been a handful of friendlies but the last of those was back in 2007.

German Franco Foda has been in charge of the side for two years and around half of his squad play in his homeland, including captain and Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger.

Baumgartlinger has made more than 200 Bundesliga appearances

Austria topped their Nations League group to guarantee a play-off route if they do not succeed through the qualifying group. They lost just once in a section containing Norway, Romania and Northern Ireland.

Their recent matches have been tended to be more low scoring than high so expect pundits to predict "tight" games when Scotland play them.

Israel

Ranking: 87

Israel are the team in the group Scotland players and fans will be most wearily familiar with after five games against them over the past two years.

Those games have been keenly contested and both famous and infamous for the Scots.

Scotland beat Israel on penalties to reach the Euros play-off final against Serbia, who were also defeated in a shoot-out. But, weeks later, defeat in Israel consigned Scotland to second place in their Nations League group.

A draw and a win apiece have been the outcomes of the other games in recent times. Willibald Ruttensteiner will come up against his native Austria in this campaign and will likely continue to rely on prolific striker Eran Zahavi for goals.

Faroe Islands

Ranking: 107

The name of this country brings shivers for Scotland fans - and not because of the temperature in the northern European nation with a population of around 52,000.

Back in 2003, the Faroes led Berti Vogts' Scotland 2-0 before the visitors recovered to get a draw.

Since then, Scotland have had no such problem beating them with four wins in a row but the last of those was a decade ago.

Now led by Swede Hakan Ericson, the squad is mainly home-based players with a few scattered in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, including Helsingborg midfielder Brandur Hendriksson and captain Hallur Hansson, who plays for Horsens.

Moldova

Ranking: 177

McFadden netted his seventh international goal against Moldova

A mere 70 places behind Faroe Islands in the rankings are Moldova, who have only two previous meetings with Scotland.

A certain Steven Thompson scored in a 1-1 draw in Moldova in 2004 and James McFadden netted the Scots' clincher in a 2-0 win over them at Hampden the following year. Which future Sportscene pundit will make the difference this time?

Engin Fırat's side finished bottom of their Nations League group with just one point from six matches.

Goals are a problem for the side - experienced defender Alexandru Epureanu is the top scorer in the current squad with seven.

What does the manager say?

Scotland manager Steve Clarke on BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound

Denmark and Austria deserve to be in pot one and pot two because their recent record is good. Both strong teams, good players. Israel we know inside out.

The trips to Faroe Islands and Moldova, being Scottish we have to be aware because we know that we're pretty good at getting tripped up in games that we're expected to win.

Which teams did fans want Scotland to face?

BBC Sport asked you, the fans, which teams they wanted in Scotland's group.

Denmark were the most voted for pot 1 team so that was one win for the fans but none of the other top picks ended in Scotland's group.

Croatia were the sought after side from Pot 2 and the Tartan Army also missed out on Luxembourg, Andorra and San Marino.