'Hampden hoping for all thriller and no killer in Greece showdown'

Can Scotland get Hampden rocking on Thursday against Greece?

World Cup qualifying, Group C: Scotland v Greece

Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST

Coverage: Watch on BBC Scotland, listen on BBC Radio Scotland & BBC Sounds, follow live text, audio & video coverage on the BBC Sport website & app.

Hampden Park has history but it's hard to say it's always had heart and soul when Scotland play.

The thunderous exceptions, though, will live long in the memory - the 2-0 win over Spain in March 2023 - Rodri's tears and all of that. And the match in the monsoon against Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's Georgia - a Scott McTominay-inspired victory - a few months later.

A stadium unloved by many, it still has the capacity to rock on its best nights - and Scotland need another one of those on Thursday when Greece are in town looking to rescue their own bid for a World Cup place while trying to damage their hosts'.

Steve Clarke has had many lives as the nation's leader, many ups and downs, many reasons for people wanting to saint him and many other reasons for people wanting to string him up.

We're back at the beatification stage at the moment - or will be if his team can beat Greece, then Belarus at Hampden on Sunday, and follow it up with enough points next month in Greece and at home to Denmark to take Scotland through to the World Cup as group winners.

In the Hall of Fame at the national stadium, he'll have a wall to himself if that happens. A statue out front, perhaps.

Certainly a place in history given that Scotland have not qualified for a men's World Cup since before the invention of the telephone. Or something like that.

'Optimism accompanied by scepticism for Scotland'

Scottish hopes are rising, which normally puts everyone on tenterhooks. Optimism is usually accompanied by scepticism at times like this.

The euphoria of qualifying for Euro 2020 was followed by a winless grind when the tournament came around. The impressive push for the last World Cup only for Ukraine to hammer Scotland in the play-off. The undiluted euphoria of making Euro 2024 and then the grisly non-performances in Germany.

The national psyche is complex when things are going well. Clarke and his players in the United States, Canada or Mexico? You could understand if the Tartan Army viewed it as too good to be true.

Fatalism has been their friend on occasion. As far as qualifying for men's World Cups go, caution has served Scotland fans well this past 27 years.

They've been excluded, nose pressed against the window, for six straight World Cups. Sixty-one different countries have played in a World Cup game since the Scots last did it. Togo and Trinidad & Tobago, North Korea and New Zealand, Angola and Iran. And Panama, for goodness sake.

Making back-to-back Euros was great - the results when there, not so great - but World Cup campaigns have brought nothing but disappointment.

There was no social media when Scotland were last at the top table, no digital cameras, no wifi for the masses, no Scottish parliament at Holyrood.

Since Scotland and Brazil opened the tournament in June 1998, there's been seven Scottish First Ministers, eight UK Prime Ministers and nine Scotland football managers.

As promising as things look for Clarke's team right now, not many supporters will be letting their guard down just yet.

They'll be thinking about Greece landing a serious blow, just as they did in March. A Nations League game that was supposed to serve up a performance befitting the recently-deceased Denis Law turned into a Greek rout; 3-0 going on plenty more.

John McGinn called that Scotland display "embarrassing" and it was. By turns, the Greek players used the same kind of language when describing their own 3-0 home defeat by Denmark in the last international window.

For a side that had put three on Scotland, four on Slovakia, four on Bulgaria and five on Belarus in their games leading up to Denmark, it was a shock to the system.

With their youth and class they were being described as one of the emerging forces of European football only to crash and burn in their own place against the Danes.

What to make of them now? A young team that's perhaps not as devastating as Scotland made them look last spring? Or a formidable outfit that just had an off night? Clarke being Clarke, he'll assume the latter.

'Temptation to be wistful and dreamy'

Even if Scotland get six points from six in the coming days, there's a trip to Athens next month to fret about and then the arrival of the Danes days later.

Scotland taking the direct route, or any route, to the World Cup? There are reasons to believe but also reasons to give yourself a slap for believing.

The Tartan Army is walking the emotional tightrope between hope and despair right now, both of them lived experiences when following the team across Europe in vast numbers, a travelling army with extraordinary resilience.

"Hope, in reality, is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man," said the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche.

All credit to Nietzsche, but Scotland fans could write the book on that.

Revisiting Hampden in March when the Greeks ran amok, certain things can be noted. Scotland didn't have Aaron Hickey or Ben Gannon Doak that night, two players who can make a difference.

Clarke also accepted that, having beaten Greece 1-0 three days earlier, he should have refreshed his team more than he did. That won't be a factor this time.

Konstantinos Karetsas, the teen wonder, was exceptional at Hampden but there are doubts coming from Greece about his fitness for Thursday. There's talk about an illness that might rule him out. If true, that's akin to Scotland losing McTominay, McGinn or Gannon Doak.

Clarke will focus on the game in front of his face but two home wins in the coming days would put Scotland in a strong position. There's no avoiding that. And so the temptation is to be wistful and dreamy at the same time.

James McFadden and Barry Ferguson never got to play in a World Cup. Neither did Callum McGregor and Scott Brown, Darren Fletcher and Kenny Miller.

The chance is still there for current players who have given so much - Andy Robertson, who has won the biggest trophies with Liverpool; Scott McTominay, who is the reigning player of the year in Italy; John McGinn, who has been a revered figure for years for club and country; Craig Gordon, who at the age of 42 and with a body rebuilt more times than the Six Million Dollar Man, is still driven, probably in large part, by the thought of making a World Cup.

That roaring ambition won't be fulfilled on Thursday even if the Greeks are beaten, but it could suffer a seismic hit if things go wrong. A potential thriller - and killer - in one momentous package. Scary, but intoxicating.