part of his international career, he captained the side 15 times. His international debut came whilst at Motherwell and awarded by Craig Brown in the 1995 Kirin Cup against host country, Japan. Lambert played a second game in the tournament three days later against Ecuador. Whilst at Dortmund and during the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign Lambert started to appear as a regular. After missing the opening game of the campaign against Austria, Lambert appeared as a 46th-minute substitute in the 2–0 win in Latvia in October 1996. He was also in the starting line-up for the next fixture against Estonia in Tallinn four days later, but a scheduling dispute meant the home team did not adhere to a quickly-rearranged afternoon kick-off time, and the match was abandoned at kick-off with no caps awarded to the Scotland players (the fixture was re-arranged for the following February, but Lambert was an unused substitute). He was again a substitute in the next qualifier which was played, coming on in the 46th minute of a 1–0 home win against Sweden. For his next cap, he was promoted to the starting line-up for a 2–0 home victory in the qualifier against Austria. Lambert's only defeat of the campaign was the 2–1 reversal in Gothenburg against Sweden before two wins against Belarus and a second 2–0 win against Latvia clinched qualification. He played in all three of Scotland's matches at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, a 2–1 defeat against Brazil in the tournament's opening match, a 1–1 draw against Norway and a 3–0 defeat against Morocco. Lambert was part of the Scotland side that won away against Germany in April 1999 with the goal scored by Don Hutchison. Lambert and Scotland qualified for a play-off place in the 2000 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying campaign, but Lambert missed the play-offs against England due to suffering an injury in the Old Firm game played the weekend before. Craig Brown cited Lambert's absence as crucial to England's progression at Scotland's expense, since he intended to deploy Lambert directly against Paul Scholes, scorer of both England goals. He scored his only goal for Scotland on 7 September 2002, in a Euro 2004 qualifier against the Faroe Islands, which ended in a 2–2 draw. Lambert was awarded Man of the Match in a 1–1 draw with Germany in June 2003. His final cap came in a 2–1 defeat