GORDON Strachan is relishing the prospect of Scotland’s first competitive encounters with England for 16 years after the countries were drawn together in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The national team manager said he would seek to draw on lessons from the 3-1 friendly defeat to the Auld Enemy at Celtic Park in November. Strachan was at Hampden to watch a live feed from St Petersburg of the draw which put the Scots in a group with England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta.

With the nine European group winners qualifying by right for the finals, and the eight best runners-up playing off to join them, the equation is more difficult than qualifying for the European Championships in France next summer, a competition in which only England and Slovakia have 100 per cent records.

The meeting with the latter will take Strachan back to Slovakia for the first time since Celtic lost 5-0 to Artmedia Bratislava in a Champions League qualifier 10 years ago tomorrow in his first match as boss.

“The fans will enjoy the England thing,” Strachan said. “And if we keep playing the way we are, I’m happy to take this lot anywhere. We understand most teams can beat us but we can beat most teams as well.

“If we have nine players playing well on the night that will be terrific, we’ll have an 80 per cent chance of winning. If we have 11 out of 11 it’s a 90 per cent chance we’ll win.”

Scotland have met England twice in friendlies since Strachan took over, going down 3-2 at Wembley in August 2013 before November’s defeat at Celtic Park.

The intensity will ratchet up for the teams’ first competitive meeting since the epic Euro 2000 play-off in November 1999 which Scotland lost 2-1on aggregate despite a 1-0 second leg win at Wembley.

Strachan added: “When you finished the game in November, you thought ‘Was that worth it?’. Only now does it become worth it, just from the lessons we learned.”