SCOTLAND Under-21s midfielder Lewis Ferguson will take huge inspiration from Steve Clarke’s squad’s European qualification when he and his teammates bid to make it a double.

Scotland will reach the Uefa European Under-21 Championship finals for the first time since 1996 if they beat Greece in Athens on Tuesday night.

Scot Gemmill’s squad shared a nation’s joy as they watched their senior counterparts reach the Euro 2020 finals with a penalty shootout victory over Serbia last Thursday, David Marshall saving the decisive kick from Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Now they aim to bring more pride to the country by topping their qualification group.

“We take so much inspiration and confidence from that,” Ferguson said.

“We all watched the A squad on Thursday night and everybody enjoyed celebrating it.

“I think we were just like every other household that was watching the game because we are fans as well. So I think we just reacted the same as everybody in Scotland did that night and celebrated that penalty save.

“It was massive for the nation as a whole. It was so good to see everybody celebrating after such a hard year.

“We looked at that and thought: ‘Why can we not go and do that at this level?’ Hopefully we can go and do that and make the nation proud again.”

The Euro 2020 feat has also given many of Gemmill’s squad further hope that they could be involved in next summer’s games at Hampden and Wembley.

Ryan Porteous and twins Robby and Ross McCrorie have been in Clarke’s squad while Ferguson is among a number of players who are tipped to make the step up at some stage.

“It’s inspiration for us to go and qualify but it’s inspiration to go and push at club level for the next eight months,” the Aberdeen player said.

“And you never know what can happen in football.”

“We are all fully focused on our game but I’m sure everybody in this squad will have that in the back of our mind that there could be a possibility of going to the Euros next year, which is unbelievable to be honest.”

Scotland kept their fate in their own hands by coming from two goals down to draw with Croatia at Tynecastle last Thursday.

Victory will seal the top spot ahead of the Czech Republic courtesy of head-to-head records, but a draw would see them overtaken into second place if Croatia beat Lithuania at home.