AMONG all the fuss and bother over Saturday’s European Championship Qualifier, one important fact appears to have been missed by fans and pundits alike.

By drawing with the Republic of Ireland, Scotland have gained admission to a very exclusive club — those countries who will be in Pot Two when the draw for the 2018 World Cup is made late next month in St Petersburg in Russia.

The victory over Qatar and the draw in Dublin mean that Scotland should scrape into Pot Two as the 17th or 18th highest-ranked club in Europe in the Fifa-Coca Cola World Rankings, Russia being ranked higher but not counting as they are the 2018 hosts — at least at the moment.

There being nine groups to be contested in Uefa’s section of qualifying for 2018, it follows that Scotland will be in Pot Two, though official confirmation is not due until Fifa issue the next list of world rankings on July 9.

Surely not even that corrupt organisation can screw up the arithmetic to keep Scotland out of the second rank of seedings — this is one part of Fifa that is open and above board, and while the arithmetic is complicated, Scotland appear to have made it into Pot Two.

Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland all made ground on Scotland in the rankings as a result of their wins at the weekend, but Poland, for example, were beating 139th-ranked Georgia while Scotland shared the points with the Republic who are ranked 60th, and it’s who you get a result against that counts.

Being second seeded is hugely important for Scotland, not to mention a massive improvement on the Brazil 2014 and Euro 2016 qualifying tournament draws when we languished in Pot Four which meant that in both cases, Scotland had three higher-ranked nations above us.

For this achievement, if nothing else, Gordon Strachan deserves immense praise even though the man himself doesn’t think that gaining a jump of two pots is that important — “the seeding makes no difference,” he said last week.

As he can often be, Strachan was possibly being a little bit disingenuous with that statement. He knows only too well that Scotland’s chances of qualification are much better if we are drawn in a group with, say, likely first seeds Switzerland and Romania.

In Pot Two, Scotland will also be unable to be drawn against fellow second seeds the Czech Republic and Croatia, and while there are plenty dangers in Pot Three — Poland, Serbia, Hungary and Sweden are all likely to be among them — the fact is that gaining second-seed status is a big boost to Scotland’s chances of making those finals in Russia.

No doubt we’ll get Germany or Belgium and have qualify the hard way by finishing runners-up and going into the play-offs, but under Strachan, Scotland need not fear that process. Qualifying via the play-offs may well be the way Scotland progresses to Euro 2016 — the first time in 20 years that we will have made the European Championship finals.

Neither Poland nor Germany looked vastly impressive in disposing of Georgia and Gibraltar at the weekend, but after Scotland’s next game against Georgia, it is the two Group D leaders who come to Hampden.

With only the top two guaranteed to being going to France next year, Scotland will definitely need to take points off Poland or Germany or both to automatically qualify, and on Saturday’s showing, that is a big, big ask.

It was Strachan who put his finger very accurately on the main cause of Scotland’s problems in Dublin — the fluent passing game which he has inculcated in the Scottish squad went all to hell, and there were just too many aimless balls. A better side than Ireland would have taken much greater advantage of Scottish errors.

The Scots also looked tired and jaded at the end of a long season. To be fair, so did most of the Irish, though they came out with their dander up and frankly were a bit too physical at times. Still, the Scots dealt with that aspect of the Irish approach admirably, and at the end of the match the official stats were interesting — for all that Ireland dominated things in attack, with 13 corners to Scotland’s four ample proof of that assertion, in terms of possession there was little in it, with Ireland having 52% of the ball compared to Scotland’s 48%.

That statistic alone gives Scotland a lot of hope for the trip to Georgia on September 4, the same night that Germany host Poland in the match which should determine who wins the group. A win in Georgia — it’s a must — plus a Polish defeat would put Scotland level on points with the Poles and set up the Scots nicely for the visit of the world champions to Hampden three days later. Even a point off Germany would be massive with Poland coming to Glasgow in October.

It is all to play for as far as Scotland is concerned, and the Republic of Ireland are definitely not out of it either, which is another reason why Saturday’s draw was so important — if Ireland end up level on points with Scotland at the end of the ten qualifying matches, it would be the Scots who would progress to the play-offs, having taken four out of a possible six points in the head-to-head which determines these matters.

So though it wasn’t the best Scottish performance in years, and very far from it, Saturday’s fighting draw does give hope of a Tartan Army presence in France next year.