THE Scotland fans are bracing themselves for what is sure to be a nervy occasion on Wednesday night, and Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou knows exactly how they will be feeling, because he once cheered on his homeland against Scotland in a World Cup playoff.

Postecoglou went along to support the Socceroos - who he would later take to a World Cup as manager - and was left crestfallen as the Scots progressed to the 1986 tournament after playing out a goalless draw, having won the first leg of the tie 2-0 at Hampden.

So he understands fully the emotions that the Tartan Army will be experiencing when they are watching their team take on Ukraine this week.

"It was in my hometown in Melbourne," Postecoglou said. "We gave you a run for your money.

"It was a massive deal at the time. There was a whole range of things. Unfortunately, the great Jock (Stein) had just passed away the game before and Sir Alex (Ferguson) took over for the two games, so there was a range of story lines.

"It was a big occasion and I was at the game because Melbourne is my home town. It was a tight game and I remember it vividly."

The pain of that defeat was heightened for Postecoglou by a sense of injustice that Australia had to get through a play-off against European opposition in order to reach the World Cup in the first place.

"We thought it was unfair for a long time," he said.

"We played European opposition that time, other times we played South American sides. We played Uruguay a couple of times.

"It was the reason that Australia wanted to move to Asia, so we had more of a World Cup qualifying campaign.

"In the past it always came down to two games, because we would get through Oceania fairly comfortably, apart from maybe New Zealand, so for us as a nation it was the natural next step in our development, because we knew Asia was getting stronger and having a strong campaign where you played 12-14 games was much better than it coming down to just two.

"In 2010, 2014, 2018, the last three were all through Asia. 2006 was the last time we went to a playoff and that was with Uruguay."