Steve Clarke says his Scotland players are already "legends" ahead of their winner-takes-all qualifier against Denmark on Tuesday.

Scotland, who lost 3-2 to Greece last time out, currently sit second in Group C, one point behind leaders Denmark, with their clash at Hampden Park proving decisive.

Denmark need to avoid defeat and do so in 69.8% of the Opta supercomputer's 10,000 pre-match simulations (44.9% chance of a win, 24.9% for a draw). Scotland's likelihood of clinching the three points to top the group sit at 30.2%.

History is seemingly on Scotland's side, having lost just one of their last five matches against Denmark (W3 D1). They had lost five in a row against the Danes beforehand, between 1986 and 2004.

And the Tartan Army have won 10 of their last 14 home World Cup qualifiers (D3 L1), including six of their last seven.

The two teams drew 0-0 in the reverse fixture, but Clarke is confident his side can get the win they need to reach their first World Cup since 1998.

"We always thought when the draw was made that if we could get it down to the final game here at Hampden that would be an achievement because we would then have had to finish above our seeding," Clarke said.

"We've done that. We were drawn as a pot-three team. We're already in second place. We want to go one step further and finish at the top of the group.

"If you look at what we've achieved over the last six-and-a-half years, a lot of these players are already 'legends', but they're already very, very high in the ranking of what we've done as a country."

Denmark may have lost seven of their nine away matches against Scotland (W2), but they have won 10 of their last 11 away World Cup qualifiers, winning seven of those without conceding a goal.

Whoever finishes second in Group C will face the play-offs in March, with 12 nations competing for four spots.

For the 2022 World Cup, Scotland finished as runners-up to Denmark in their qualifying group before losing to Ukraine in their play-off semi-final.

"The players understand the magnitude of the game, but they just have to prepare for a game of football and make sure they are focused on how we want to play and on what Denmark might do," said Clarke.

"If they go out and play as they can, then I believe they are good enough to get the result we need."