Italy have been reluctant to acknowledge Scotland's revival but now the world champions have recognised the seriousness of the threat and have begun to play mind games in advance of their meeting in the final Group B match next month.

Fabio Grosso and Gianluigi Buffon were moved to accept the Scottish threat after Italy's vital 2-0 defeat of Georgia, whose coach, Klaus Toppmoller, has spoken of tailoring his game-plan to counter James McFadden at the Boris Paichadze Stadium tomorrow night.

The realisation that Scotland's victory over France in Paris was not a one-off has finally dawned. The chief topic of conversation at the coaching course attended by Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Gerard Houllier among others at Gleneagles on Saturday night was, by all accounts, the outstanding midfield displays of Barry Ferguson and Scott Brown that day.

It is beyond dispute that rich progress has been made by the Scottish set-up, with the initial benefits felt by the national team and on the European stage. As with qualification for Euro 2008, however, Scotland have not reached their chosen destination yet, and Craig Gordon is adamant that the restoration must also be measured by the export of native talent into the Premier League and beyond.

"A couple of years ago there wasn't much interest in Scottish players among the Premiership clubs," Gordon said. "But now you look at the performances of guys like James McFadden and Scott Brown and wonder how much money people would be prepared to pay for them. We do have a lot of guys now who are starting to get recognised across Britain and throughout Europe. That's a good sign for the national team. We are a group of young players and we have a lot of years and campaigns ahead of us."

Gordon is a considered custodian but such is the confidence in this Scotland squad that he challenged Grosso's perception that qualification remained a hope more than an achievable target for Alex McLeish's squad.

The Italy defender insisted: "They need to get three points on Wednesday and they are not used to that kind of pressure." But Gordon countered: "There is no reason to question our bottle. We have players playing at the highest level, players in the Premiership and also in the Champions League with both Rangers and Celtic."

"I wouldn't think the pressure is getting to this group," said Roy Aitken, the assistant manager. "The challenge has been there since the start of this campaign - could we compete right at the top until the end - and they have answered every challenge up to now."