So it has come to this. The nervous excitement of a memorable campaign stretches in to the last match of the qualifying group. Beat the world champions and book for Austria and Switzerland in the summer.

It is the unlikeliest of finales to a Euro 2008 campaign that started with a whimper. Scotland's initial match in Group B was so low-key Robbie Williams outsang it. He warbled at Hampden while Scotland dismissed the Faroe Islands 6-0 at Celtic Park. A pop singer had forced the Tartan Army and the national team to decamp.

If Luciano Pavarotti was suddenly brought back to life and announced he wanted to play Hampden this afternoon with the remaining members of Led Zeppelin as his backing band, he would be told politely to come back when we were less busy.

This is a huge match and it has produced a tsunami of words. Only small pieces of viable information have washed ashore, like flimsy pieces of driftwood. There were only two questions when Alex McLeish met the press yesterday: who would he pick and in what formation. They were not asked because he would rather they remained unanswered. He may have headered one too many size-five Mitres but McLeish can never be confused with a simpleton. His head is marked with the scars of battle but his mind is stocked with a proper sense of what is required of a coach. He wanted to keep every bit of useful information a secret as long as possible.

An international match of mystery was illuminated only by the news that an international man of mystery, Sean Connery, had given McLeish "some good words that I might use in the dressing room".

The press tiptoed around McLeish as if we could surprise him into a startling revelation. However, there were only hints about possible formations. How Scotland will line up has produced so much interest that one expects A Chair of International Strategic Formations to be set up at the University of Glasgow.

The febrile debate on McLeish's deliberations can best be summarised as The Faddy Question.

Scotland can play 4-4-2, 4-5-1, or 4-1-4-1. James McFadden, Hero of Paris, Imperial Impaler of Lithuania, Czar of Ukraine, will start if McLeish decides on a 4-4-2 formation, with the Everton forward playing off Kenny Miller or if he decides that the Derby forward is not fit. McFadden would then be the lone forward. "We know the strengths of the Italian team and we have to nullify those strengths in order for our own boys to function," said McLeish yesterday, indicating that five in midfield was more than a possibility.

"I have to make sure that we are as tight as we can be when we don't have the ball," he added later.

Paul Hartley, in a holding role, would ensure that Scotland are well protected against Italy's front three. The other four midfield places would be taken by Barry Ferguson, Darren Fletcher, Scott Brown and Lee McCulloch.

But the key question appears to be Faddy or Miller? McLeish may be leaning towards McFadden with the option of bringing Miller on in the latter stages.

The situation, though, is hardly driving McLeish towards the brink. Asked if he was relaxed, he replied easily: "I am. I have to be. I have been used to the high pressure over the years and you train your mind for it."

There is a perception of McLeish as a "lucky manager". This was fuelled by last-gasp league successes as manager of Rangers but has hardly been diminished by such victories as the stunning success in Paris when McFadden scored brilliantly. "I have had a lot of last-day triumphs," McLeish said, "but this one would surely be the pinnacle."

He was honest about what it would take to win. "The players have been successful in this campaign because of their application, their work ethic, and they know that if they slacken off any we are not the same team. We have to work harder than the Italians because they use the ball with better economy than we do."

The talk of tactics was banished. Systems can evaporate on first contact with the enemy. "I cannot win these players the game," said McLeish, who was sanguine about the certainty that his decisions will be held in contempt in the wake of a defeat.

"I have to call it as I see it," he said. The burden of that responsibility galvanises him.

"We are lucky, we are privileged to be involved in sport at this level. We have to look at it as a fantastic challenge and not a threat," he said of what faces him and his charges today.

This is the nub of the matter. Italy will provide McLeish with no surprises this afternoon. They will play in a 4-3-3 formation that reverts instantly to 4-5-1 when they lose the ball. They will be organised, determined and technically brilliant. This formidable combination will only be overcome by a collective effort and a piece of luck. The manager hopes to supply the latter but the players are responsible for the former. There is no danger that they will freeze. They may be defeated but, in football parlance, they will not lie down. This is a battalion made up of the veterans of Paris, the Celtic players who defeated AC Milan, the Rangers players who embarrassed Lyon, and others who ply their trade in the Barclays Premier League.

It is a team, too, that is strong on promise and personality. Brown and Alan Hutton, for example, are hyperactive on the park but cool, almost disdainful of the reputations of opposition players. They have "Come Ahead" inscribed on their psyche. Craig Gordon is a goalkeeper marked by assurance of mind and competence of technique. Miller will run all day, though he may only have to endure a short spell of lung-bursting effort. Stephen McManus and David Weir relish a challenge, one with a clenched fist, the other with a quieter, no less resolute approach.

The midfield hums with endeavour and skill. Ferguson and Fletcher are players who can keep possession and use it to effect. McCulloch, the most under-rated of the midfield contingent, has already scored a great goal at Hampden and contributes to the team in supplying unlimited effort and in keeping an organised shape.

He is also the best header of the ball in the forward area and that ability could trouble the Italians, perhaps significantly so.

And then there is Faddy. The bookmakers are offering 5/6 he starts, 5/6 he does not. Whatever, he has the mark of history upon him. He seems destined to score great goals on great occasions. His hunched shuffle can disguise the approach of moments of sublime football. Paris lingers pleasantly in the mind like an expensive scent but four years ago, almost to the day, he whipped in one to confound the Netherlands.

He will, at some point, have the opportunity for an encore today. And without Robbie Williams to drown him out. McLeish said yesterday: "These are men who have won in Paris. I have urged the players not to fear failure and to go out there and play their hearts out. We are not frightened of the world champions. We have never been scared of anyone at Hampden."

This is not a man who appears to need Sean Connery to supply words of motivation. The day has arrived. It must be seized. Gerrintaethem, as James Bond never said.