Fergie: Scotland are capable of causing an upset against England at Wembley

The national team’s hopes of reaching the next World Cup finals will be dealt a significant blow if they lose to the Auld Enemy in London on November 11.

Gordon Strachan’s hopes of remaining in charge will also be seriously damaged if his side lose to Gareth Southgate’s team in the Group F fixture.

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Scotland were unable to beat Lithuania at Hampden and then lost heavily to Slovakia away at Trnava earlier this month and are now third bottom of their section after three outings.

Few members of the Tartan Army hold out much hope of Strachan’s men getting a win or even a draw in their next game given how disappointing they were in their last two outings.

However, Ferguson, who managed his country in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, believes Scotland are more than capable of causing an upset.

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He recalled the second leg of the Euro 2000 play-off in 1999 - when their chances of success had been written off after a 2-0 defeat at Hampden and they won 1-0.

“I think we have to win it,” he said. “But that’s not a problem. We can win it. Scotland showed in the Euro Championship play-offs a few years ago that they can go down there and win.

They were very unlucky not to go through. (Christian) Dailly had a header in the last minute saved by (David) Seaman. If that had gone in, we’d have gone on to win it.”

Sir Alex added: “It’s a difficult section. With the grading or rating we get, we always get very difficult groups. You can see the difference with the likes of Spain or England, who are rated higher and always seem to have easier groups. We are always in the difficult groups.

“But I think playing England is always a massive incentive for our players. Scotland always do well against them. It’s always a great incentive and we enjoy being underdogs. The sup-port is always fantastic. No matter how many tickets we are allocated, they always find treble the amount from somewhere.

“I remember going back to ‘77 when they pulled down the goalposts. The English FA said they were banning the Scottish fans forever, but two years later about 80,000 Scots were inside Wembley.”

Speaking at the launch of the Glasgow host city branding and logo for the Euro 2020 finals, Ferguson remember how he had been called into the Scotland set-up for arguably their most famous victory over then world champions England at Wembley in 1967.

“I was in the squad originally because Denis Law had a knee injury,” he said. “My dad had never been to Wembley, but I got tickets as I was in the squad at the time. To win 3-2 was fantastic.”

Meanwhile, Sir Alex, the legendary former Aberdeen and Manchester United manager, expressed hope that Scotland can qualify for play at Hampden in the Euro 2020 finals.

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“I had an incentive as well, in 2002 and I never made it,” he said. “Leverkusen beat us (United) in the semi-final. They need to win their games and it will be a hard section, whoever we get.

"But there has always been talent in Scotland. So many great players have come through this country.”

Meanwhile, the 74-year-old has welcomed Glasgow being named as one of 13 host cities for the Euro 2020 finals.

“Our tradition of hosting finals helped us," he said. "We have had some fantastic finals at Hampden - you can’t think of a bad final. It’s a great thing. It’s a great football city and Glasgow people welcome these kind of events."